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Two Prosecutors

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95% Tomatometer 41 Reviews Popcornmeter 0 Verified Ratings
The latest film from the great Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa (My Joy) is a scalpel-precise tale of the horrors of totalitarian bureaucracy. Adapting a novel by Soviet writer and political prisoner Georgy Demidov, set in the Soviet Union in 1937, Loznitsa follows the attempts of an idealistic government-appointed prosecutor (Alexander Kuznetsov) to expose the mistreatment of a dissident Bolshevik writer who has been jailed and tortured without evidence of wrongdoing. As he gradually comes to realize, the lack of cause for the man's imprisonment is hardly unique under Stalin’s regime, and the neophyte lawyer may be putting himself in danger by exposing his own moral righteousness. Loznitsa constructs his story with a patient yet unmistakable sense of mounting dread, focusing on the devastating minutiae that allows fascism to function in our world.
Two Prosecutors

What to Know

Critics Consensus

Anchored by Sergei Loznitsa's impeccable staging and Aleksandr Kuznetsov's haunting performance, Two Prosecutors delivers its chilling portrait of bureaucratic deception and lost idealism with quiet, unsettling power.

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Cast & Crew

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Sergei Loznitsa

Director

Aleksandr Kuznetsov

Alexander Kornev

Aleksandr Filippenko

Stepniak

Anatoliy Belyy

Vyshynsky

Andris Keiss

Actor

Vytautas Kaniusonis

Actor

Critics Reviews

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Eli Friedberg Slant Magazine Oct 6
3/4
The film is a satiric look at Stalinism and bureaucracy with shades of Kafka, Orwell, and Gogol. Go to Full Review Tim Robey Daily Telegraph (UK) Jun 16
4/5
The claustrophobia is total – we’re theatrically trapped in cells and offices, click-clacking down corridors – but the superb Romanian cinematographer Oleg Mutu lights everything like Vermeer doing Borat. Go to Full Review Justin Chang NPR Jun 2
You know it can’t end well, but you never know exactly how it will end -- or at what point this meticulously constructed steel trap of a movie will snap coldly, decisively shut. Go to Full Review Panos Kotzathanasis Asian Movie Pulse 4d
8
"Two Prosecutors" is a masterful film, both in terms of context and cinematic values, once more highlighting Lonznitsa’s prowess as both director and script writer. Go to Full Review Rich Cline Shadows on the Wall Jan 29
4/5
This is a Kafkaesque tale that is laced with bitter irony, exploring ideas of justice and legacy through situations that sneak up on us with their present-day resonance. Go to Full Review Alejandro Lingenti La Nación (Argentina) Nov 20
4/5
...Loznitsa manages to create a very special, at times almost hypnotic, atmosphere, reflecting the paranoia, the persecutions and the repression that characterized the regime in the Stalin years...[Full review in Spanish] Go to Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Thomas S Dec 5 Deux procureurs » en dit long sur la nature humaine, et met en lumière l’une de ces innombrables histoires oubliées. Ces visages de sadiques — où les ont-ils dénichés ? — donnent au film une intensité presque dérangeante. Il y a quelque chose, dans cet univers sombre et implacable, qui résonne profondément en moi. Une œuvre qui marque et qui interroge. See more dlma1 M @dlma1 Nov 5 I saw this film at the AFI Film Festival in Hollywood. From Slovakia, this drama takes place in the USSR of 1937, when a young prosecutor tries to investigate abuse of a loyal party member, who has been unfairly imprisoned. Period recreations of the USSR at the time are very good along with atmosphere of despair that pervaded Russia that the time. A tense drama, but with a predictable conclusion that I saw coming from a mile away. 6/10 See more Read all reviews
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Two Prosecutors

Two Prosecutors (2025) View more photos

Movie Info

Synopsis The latest film from the great Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa (My Joy) is a scalpel-precise tale of the horrors of totalitarian bureaucracy. Adapting a novel by Soviet writer and political prisoner Georgy Demidov, set in the Soviet Union in 1937, Loznitsa follows the attempts of an idealistic government-appointed prosecutor (Alexander Kuznetsov) to expose the mistreatment of a dissident Bolshevik writer who has been jailed and tortured without evidence of wrongdoing. As he gradually comes to realize, the lack of cause for the man's imprisonment is hardly unique under Stalin’s regime, and the neophyte lawyer may be putting himself in danger by exposing his own moral righteousness. Loznitsa constructs his story with a patient yet unmistakable sense of mounting dread, focusing on the devastating minutiae that allows fascism to function in our world.
Director
Sergei Loznitsa
Producer
Kevin Chneiweiss
Screenwriter
Sergei Loznitsa
Distributor
Janus Films
Production Co
Studio Uljana Kim, SBS Productions, LooksFilm, Atoms & Void, White Picture
Genre
History, Drama
Original Language
Russian
Release Date (Theaters)
Mar 20, 2026, Limited
Runtime
1h 57m