Sergei Loznitsa

The film opens with a simple shot of the sky. Although the image is in black and white, it’s clear that we’re looking at a blue mid-summer day.

In 2014, Sergei Loznitsa, one of Ukraine's most prominent filmmakers, directed Maidan, a powerful documentary focusing on the Euromaidan movement of 2013 and 2014 in Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) in Ukraine's capital Kyiv. As is well known, the Euromaidan movement has advocated political freedom, civil and human rights, and closer ties with the West (with or without affiliation with NATO).