Ukraine selects an absurdist film about its war-torn east for the next Academy Awards

On August 29, Ukraine's Oscar Committee announced that it has selected Sergey Loznitsa’s film “Donbass” as the country’s entry for the Best Foreign-Language Film at the 91st Academy Awards. The movie has already won praise in Europe: at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, Loznitsa took home the Un Certain Regard Award for Best Director. “Donbass” shows life in the self-declared Donetsk and Lugansk Peoples’ Republics both during and after the war's most violent phase in 2014 and 2015.

It was never screened in Russia, where a mid-July limited premiere was canceled after the Culture Ministry warned that the film failed to get a distribution license from the federal government.

Meduza’s film critic, Anton Dolin, says the movie won’t please many Russian and Ukrainian viewers, but that doesn't make the motion picture any less frightening, paradoxical, or outstanding.