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Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa decries ‘nightmare’ of Putin-Trump alliance

In Cannes to promote his Stalinist drama Two Prosecutors, the film-maker said he feared the US and Russia would soon ‘become equal’

Set at the time of Stalin’s Great Terror, the tragicomic film tells the story of young and idealistic prosecutor Alexander Kornyev (played by Russian actor Aleskandr Kuznetsov), who receives an anonymous letter written in blood that speaks of the brutal torture at the hands of the secret police. Loznitsa, a Cannes regular whose 2018 film Donbass won the Un Certain Regard award for best director, has been based in Berlin for more than 20 years and is a controversial figure in his native Ukraine. He sounded evasive when asked at a press conference on Thursday about his view on US president Trump pressurising the Ukrainian government to accept Moscow’s demands for a peace deal, such as recognising Russian control of Crimea.

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