MoMA presents the first complete North American retrospective of Ukrainian filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa, opening on October 23 with the North American premiere of his latest film, Imperium. The series spans Loznitsa’s 30-year career in fiction and nonfiction cinema, from his observations of daily life in the Russian countryside in the years following the collapse of the Soviet Union to his reckonings with war, genocide, and historical amnesia: the siege of Leningrad in Blockade (2005), the civil uprising against the regime of Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych in Maidan (2014), the massacre of nearly 34,000 Jews by Nazi death squads and Ukrainian collaborators during World War II in Babi Yar. Context (2019), and Stalin’s Great Purge in The Trial (2018) and Two Prosecutors (2025).
Now based in Berlin and Lithuania, Loznitsa will present these films and other award-winning works, including Donbass (2018), A Gentle Creature (2017), and My Joy (2010), as well as two films inspired by the writings of W. G. Sebald, The Natural History of Destruction (2022) and Austerlitz (2016).
Organized by Joshua Siegel, Curator, and Olivia Priedite, Program Coordinator, Department of Film.
Film at MoMA is made possible by CHANEL.
Additional support is provided by the Annual Film Fund. Leadership support for the Annual Film Fund is provided by The Contemporary Arts Council of The Museum of Modern Art, Agnes Gund through The International Council of The Museum of Modern Art, the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP), and The Young Patrons Council of The Museum of Modern Art.