Two Prosecutors

Simultaneously Orwellian and Kafkaesque, Sergei Loznitsa’s quietly powerful thriller set in Stalin’s bureaucracy is both and more.

It’s 1937 in the USSR. Under Stalin, political prisoners have the right for their cases to be investigated, but their letters are systematically incinerated. One letter, written in blood, miraculously finds its way into the hands of Kornyev, a newly appointed prosecutor. Doing his due diligence, he arrives at the prison to interview the letter writer, but he immediately finds barriers at every turn.

Curator’s Note
Sergei Loznitsa’s modestly paced, impeccably shot thriller is the quiet achiever of 2025. Suspense is conjured silently and invisibly in such a masterful way that you won’t sense it building until you can’t escape its cold grip.

Loznitsa’s career has oscillated between documentary and narrative fiction. His previous film The Invasion documented the resilience of the Ukrainian people under attack by Russia. Two Prosecutors is an adaptation of a novella by Georgy Demidov, who spent 18 years in a labour camp and died believing authorities had destroyed all of his writing. A year later, it was returned to his daughter and published posthumously.

Two Prosecutors premiered at the 78th Cannes Film Festival, where it competed for the Palme d’Or and won the François Chalais Prize.

– Reece Goodwin, Senior Programmer (Film & Screen Industry)