• Privacy policy
  • T&C’s
  • FAQ
  • Meet the Team
  • About The London Economic
  • Advertise
TLE ONLINE SHOP!
NEWSLETTER
SUPPORT THE LONDON ECONOMIC
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Opinion
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Film
  • Food
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Opinion
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Film
  • Food
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
No Result
View All Result
Home Film DVD & VOD

Maidan – Documentary Film Review

By Emily Wight About halfway through Maidan, a man climbs up the side of a disused bus with its windows smashed and seats wrenched off their hinges, and yells at the sea of riot police lined up behind it: “Are you people or animals?” None of them respond, but with explosions and chants roaring through […]

Joe Mellor by Joe Mellor
February 21, 2015
in DVD & VOD, Film

By Emily Wight

About halfway through Maidan, a man climbs up the side of a disused bus with its windows smashed and seats wrenched off their hinges, and yells at the sea of riot police lined up behind it: “Are you people or animals?” None of them respond, but with explosions and chants roaring through the air, they may well not have heard.

If it were to have emerged from Syria or Iraq over the past few years, footage like this would be par for the course. But what is striking about this, and similar footage that was in the news this time last year, is that it’s closer to home, in Ukraine.

The scene comes bang in the middle of Sergei Loznitsa’s new documentary film Maidan, a two-hour portrayal of the unravelling of Kiev’s Independence Square uprising between December 2013 and February 2014. Loznitsa stops filming when Ukranian president Viktor Yanukovych fled the country on February 22. But it’s impossible to watch, one year on, this city centre unravel into a war zone, without keeping in mind the long-term upheaval the civil unrest has triggered, and its ramifications on a global scale.

Loznitsa, who was born in Belarus but grew up in Ukraine, has a strong background in documentary film, but is best known for his critically acclaimed feature films My Joy and In the Fog. I would be interested to watch his other documentary work. Maidan is not like any I’ve seen before: there is no protagonist or narrator; there are no interviews; nothing new is revealed.

Instead the square itself is the protagonist, starting out as a site of peaceful gatherings like Trafalgar Square in London or Times Square in New York, ending as a bloody battlefield full of molotov cocktails and grenades and sirens, in which more than one hundred people were killed, more than one hundred went missing and hundreds more were injured over the course of three months.

The approach is an interesting one, but it seems to only show the square as it is on three separate dates, in November, January and February. For the first hour of the film, there is not much action and no spoken account of what is going on. We see a five-minute-long shot of people lying in sleeping bags in a shelter while women dole out soup. Then, another three minute-long focus on a group of women, huddled together chanting.

RelatedPosts

Glasgow Film Festival: What we’ve seen so far

Film Review: PVT Chat

Film Review: Saint Maud

Silver Screen Show: Soul

This is how I summed it up to a friend: “Imagine visiting a photography exhibition of images from the protests, expecting powerful images of clashes – but most of the pictures were of people milling around”.

It’s difficult to focus attention, no matter how interested you are in the situation. Some of the group scenes, and the more turbulent episodes towards the end, lend themselves well to powerful cinematography, and the second half is doubtlessly more exciting. But there is too much standing around during the first half to grab the attention of anyone but the most die-hard documentary fans.

Support fearless, free, investigative journalism Support fearless, free, investigative journalism Support fearless, free, investigative journalism

Subscribe to our Newsletter

View our  Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions

Trending fromTLE

  • All
  • trending

What If We Got Rid Of Prisons?

Stress, fear and homelessness: The threat looming over families confronted with eviction

File photo dated 07/11/03 of a prison cell.

The Other Prison Pandemic

Latest from TLE

Credit;PA

Police cannot explain ‘unfair’ use of powers against BAME people

Credit;PA

Rooster cuts man’s groin and kills him at illegal cockfight and a lot of people said same thing

Watch: Labour’s Shadow Chancellor won’t say if supports keeping Universal Credit uplift in perpetuity

Credit;PA

Confused reactions as Guardian publishes article claiming even Germany envies UK

About Us

TheLondonEconomic.com – Open, accessible and accountable news, sport, culture and lifestyle.

Read more

Address

The London Economic Newspaper Limited t/a TLE
Company number 09221879
International House,
24 Holborn Viaduct,
London EC1A 2BN,
United Kingdom

Contact

Editorial enquiries, please contact: jack@thelondoneconomic.com

Commercial enquiries, please contact: advertise@thelondoneconomic.com

SUPPORT

We do not charge or put articles behind a paywall. If you can, please show your appreciation for our free content by donating whatever you think is fair to help keep TLE growing and support real, independent, investigative journalism.

DONATE & SUPPORT

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.




No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Politics
  • Opinion
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Film
  • Lifestyle
  • Food
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech & Auto
  • About The London Economic
  • Meet the Team
  • Privacy policy

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.