The film is based on a book by Belarussian author, Vassily Bykov, one of Belarusia's most famous authors who drew on his real life experiences during World War II for his material.

The setting is the German occupied Western frontier of the USSR, present day Belarus, in 1942.  Local pro-Soviet partisans are fighting against the occupying Germans in a campaign that is long and brutal. 

When a train is derailed a village a rail worker, Sushenya, is arrested by mistake together with a group of saboteurs.  The saboteurs are hung but the German officer in charge realizes that Sushenya is innocent and to everyone's surprise, lets him go.

But this is just the beginning of Sushenya's problems because no one believes that he was just let go as an act of mercy.  Everyone believes that he must be a German collaborator.

Weeks later partisans Burov and Voitik arrive and take Sushenya into the forest to shoot him.  But events take an unexpected turn when the group is attached by a group of pro-Nazi fighters.  In the ensuing battle all three men are wounded and left to survive in the forest. Thrown together with the same fate, they have to decide moral questions about crime and punishment and guilt and innocence.  We see the lives and the moral decisions that the three men have had to take in a series of flashbacks about their lives.

Russia has a long and glorious tradition of great war films from this period so Loznitsa has chosen a genre where he has a lot to live up to.  But the director soon takes the story into another dimension that goes beyond the war film and becomes a film about the choices men make in brutal conditions and under totalitarian regimes.  Is anyone really guilty or innocent?

Speaking during the press conference Loznitsa said that the film was not about war. "The film is about people who find themselves in certain conditions.  This generates and atmosphere.   What happens can happen at any time and in any society."

Loznitsa chose his cast from Russian theatre actors and they turn in stunning performances as the three wounded men, especially Vladimir Svirski as Sushenya.

The film was shot by Oleg Mutu who also shot another Cannes competitor this year, Cristian Mungiu's Beyond the Hills.  The film was shot in 72 long takes and the highly talented and obviously much in demand Mutu gives In the Fog his distinctive look and style. Despite being set in Belarus the film was shot in Lativa where the director said he found the forests that he needed.

Sound also plays a big role in the film.  Loznitsa said that sound was very important in this films.  He said: "I treat sound as you would treat music in my films.  That's why I don't' need music in my films because the sound is sufficient." The sound in In the Fog took three months to complete.

Loznitsa said: "If I have to sum up what the film is about I would quote from the author Bykov who said that a man is capable of everything, but there are situations when he is capable of absolutely nothing."

 

Credits:

Russia, Germany, Latvia, Netherlands, Belarus

Director: Sergei Loznitsa

Screenwriter: Sergei Loznitsa

DoP: Oleg Mutu

Production: Ma.ja.de Fiction, Belarusfilm, GP Cinema Company, Lemming Film, Rija Films (www.rijafilms.lv)

Cast: Vladimir Svirski, Vladislav Abashin and Sergei Kolesov