Babi Yar. Context

dir. Siergiej Łoźnica 2021 Ukraine, The Netherlands, France 121 min.
2021 – Cannes IFF: Best Doc Award; 2021 – IDFA Amsterdam; 2021 – London FF
On September 29–30, 1941, 33,771 Jews were shot dead in the Babi Yar ravine in Ukraine. Sergei Loznitsa investigates the context of this genocide


On September 29–30, 1941, Einsatzgruppe C, assisted by two battalions of the Police Regiment South and the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police, shot dead 33,771 Jews in the Babi Yar ravine in the North-West of Kiev, Ukraine. This title card appears in the very middle of Sergei Loznitsa’s latest virtuoso, deeply troubling archival documentary, its placement perfectly illustrating the approach laid out in the title: if grasping such a horrific atrocity is impossible, any understanding of it can only be gained through context.