OBSERVER: Two Prosecutors
Set in Stalin’s Russia in 1937, Two Prosecutors is based on a story by dissident writer and gulag survivor Georgy Demidov and is written and directed by Sergei Loznitsa. A chance discovery of a blood-written note, rescued from a mountain of others headed for the incinerator, is diverted to the prosecutor’s office.
A secret act of defiance by a fellow prisoner in a world of oppression. Kornyev (Aleksandr Kuznetsov), inexplicably promoted to state prosecutor three months after graduating, decides to pursue the strange request.
The note writer, Stepniak (Aleksandr Fillipenko), is a former state prosecutor, now a political prisoner. Undeterred by the prison authorities’ delaying tactics, Kornyev insists on visiting the old man.
Mundane scenes follow, of endless shots of climbing stairs, walking down grey corridors, and locking and unlocking gates. Despite the monotony, a sense of unease begins to spread.
Kornyev recognises the old man as a former lecturer who spoke on ‘The Great Bolshevik Truth’, resolving to plead Stepniak’s case to the authorities in Moscow. At each meeting with various functionaries, Kornyev waits as the clock marks time passing, ignoring subtle warnings not to pursue Stepniak’s case.
In Moscow, amid a room full of other grey-suited young men, Kornyev waits for hours.
Finally, in a short and brutal meeting, a bureaucrat, Vyshynsky (Anatoli Beliy), listens poker-faced to his plea before dismissing him.
Two Prosecutors is a terrifying cautionary tale about how totalitarian regimes turn time-wasting methods into a deadly game. Kuznetsov is excellent as Kornyev, his idealism shining through despite his deadpan expression.
Lulled into a false sense of justice in his mission, Kornyev misjudges the danger he is getting himself into, but we recognise the Kafka-esque nightmare he is entering. Chillingly, we sense the ending and dread the inevitable.
Now screening in Australian cinemas.
Review by Kathryn Keeble