Based on a novella of the same name by the soviet dissident, Georgy Demidov, who himself had survived 14 years in the Siberian gulag, Two Prosecutors delves into the dark heart of Stalin’s Great Terror in 1937 Russia. 

The first prosecutor and central character is Kornyev (Aleksandr Kuznetsov). Though very young to have been appointed to the position of State Prosecutor, an early profile shot showing a broken nose, suggests that he has come from the school of hard knocks.

Driven by his youthful sense of injustice and seeming lack of understanding of the true nature of the regime, he pursues a case, resulting in an extraordinary interview with Vyshinsky (Anatoliy Beliy), a figure from history, Stalin’s chief prosecutor during the late 1930’s.  Having displayed endless patience to overcome the obfuscation and get this far, one has the feeling that this story is only going in one direction. 

Set during a brutal era, the film itself is not brutal though it does portray very well the utter cynicism and deadening bureaucracy of a truly totalitarian system. 

Directed by the Ukrainian Serge Loznitsa, and shot in a muted near monochrome palette by the Romanian cinematographer Oleg Mutu, Two Prosecutors was filmed in Riga in Latvia, with funding from The Netherlands, Latvia, Germany, Lithuania and Romania. No doubt, in the current political climate in Russia, a proposal to film there would not have received a warm welcome.

“Impeccably directed and impressively acted, this slow-burn story of political injustice is filled to the brim with atmosphere — specifically the stifling, claustrophobic atmosphere of the USSR at the height of Stalin’s Great Purge.” Jordan Mintzer, The Hollywood Reporter

“This is not the kind of movie that hinges on abrupt reveals or gratuitous twists. Indeed, the banal predictability of Kornyev’s slowly mounting humiliations and disillusionments is very much the point.” Jessica Kiang, Variety