Maidan
"Do you want to make the news?" shouts a protest leader halfway down Maidan. The response of the crowd in and around Independence Square in Kiev is approving. And they certainly have. The protests against the corrupt president Viktor Yanukovych were daily television fare from November 2013 onwards. And even after that, Ukraine continued to dominate the news, with a totally derailed conflict that now involves half the world.
Ukrainian-born filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa portrays a people, saying 'no' to Putin's vassal and 'yes' to the European Union. At first, the atmosphere is still peaceful, there is a lot of singing, praying and dancing. But when the riot police intervene with tear gas and truncheons, things get grimmer and the square changes into a battlefield. The camera is positioned between the crowds but always keeps its distance. The director, who is completely impartial, records the developments during three months - months in which dozens of demonstrators are killed - in classic feature film style.
