Speaking at a press conference, Loznitza – who was expelled from the Ukrainian film academy for expressing his support for Russian filmmakers – said there should be repentance for past mistakes. “History repeats itself when we don’t learn from history, when we don’t study it and we don’t want to know what happened to us,” he said. “It’s very difficult and people have to spend a lot of energy on it… When this Russian invasion of Ukraine happened, immediately we all realized that it was like 80 years ago and we realized that we just started repeating the same things. It means we didn’t learn after the war.” The Kiev trial, also known as “Kyiv Nuremberg”, took place in January 1946 in the Soviet Union and was one of the first post-World War II trials to convict German Nazis and their collaborators. Fifteen defendants faced justice “for the atrocities committed by fascist invaders on the territory of the Ukrainian SSR.” Using never-before-seen archive footage, the documentary – which is playing out of competition in Venice – reconstructs key moments of the trial, including the defendants’ statements and witness statements, with survivors of Auschwitz and Babin Yar among them. Clip from the new documentary by Sergei Loznitsa, The Trial of Kiev. Photo: Atoms Void Loznitsa linked the invasion of Ukraine to a lack of repentance for historic Soviet crimes and said he hoped one day to make a film about trials against representatives of the Soviet Union. “At the end of this war, there must be a trial against all war crimes committed by the Russian military and Russian politicians in Ukraine,” he said. “But also a trial against the state of the Soviet Union for crimes they committed since 1917 and ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union. It is because this kind of trial did not happen like the Nuremberg trial that we have this country in such conditions as it is now. We are all surprised, but it is not surprising when people think this way. Without such a trial … nothing happens and this fight will come up again and again.” He added: “We would love to make a film about it. This is what I want to do”. Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you to the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Loznitsa resigned from the European Film Academy in February in response to its statement expressing “solidarity with Ukraine” – published after the Russian invasion of the country. In an open letter, the principal condemned the academy for failing to “call a war a war, condemn the brutality and voice your protest.” Days later, the European Film Academy announced that it would exclude Russian films from the European Film Awards. But Loznitsa spoke out against this decision, saying that “many friends and colleagues, Russian filmmakers, have taken a stand against this insane war… They are victims like us of this aggression.” He urged “not to judge people by their passports” but “by their actions”. It was then announced that Loznitsa had been expelled from the Ukrainian Film Academy for opposing the boycott of Russian films.
