By Alex McPherson

Measured but pulsing with suspense, Ukrainian writer/director Sergei Loznitsa’s riveting new film “Two Prosecutors” underscores the all-seeing shadow of fascism in 1937 USSR while remaining scarily relevant today.

Based on a story by the Soviet dissident and physicist Gyorgy Demidov, the film takes place during Stalin’s Great Purge and revolves around Kornyev (Aleksandr Kuznetsov), a young prosecutor fresh out of law school who truly believes in the sanctity of the law. Kornyev’s idealism blinds him to the systemic conspiracies surrounding him.

One day, Kornyev receives a note scribbled in blood alleging abuse by the NKVD (Stalin’s secret police) from a “counter-revolutionary” inmate named Stepniak (Aleksandr Filippenko), who is being held in a prison in Bryansk. Stepniak’s note was miraculously smuggled out by an elderly prison laborer tasked with burning letters, and it wound up in his office.

Kornyev takes it upon himself to investigate, hoping to bring those culpable to justice, unaware of the jeopardy he’s putting himself in.

Upon arriving at the compound, which is layered with a never-ending series of locked doors, cramped hallways, and death-glare guards, Kornyev is uneasy but deadset in his mission to talk to Stepniak. He’s willing to wait alone in a room for hours and overlook not-so-subtle hints from prison officials that he’d better watch his back.

After finally getting access to Stepniak and hearing his story, Kornyev is emboldened to seek justice. He fully believes that higher-ups will want to hear the truth, ignorant of the fact that his government is, indeed, rotten to its very core.

Suffice to say, Kornyev’s mission doesn’t go according to plan. With a patient approach that ratches up tension, and fateful inevitability, by the second, “Two Prosecutors” paints a fable-like portrait of a society in the throes of totalitarian power. Our protagonist is always being watched and judged as an invading force to be put down.

Loznitsa also interrogates just how useful a legalistic approach is to counter the horror — wryly critiquing Kornyev’s stubborn insistence on following procedure when the law has been thrown to the wind. Even when Kornyev leaves the Bryansk prison, he never really leaves; walls of eyes surveille him wherever he goes.

“Two Prosecutors” takes its time, letting us sit and breathe in the harrowing situations Kornyev finds himself in. Whole conversations take place nonverbally: silent battles waged in stares and body language, dare Kornyev to back off and look the other way. Equally as frequent are trials of patience, where Kornyev is forced to wade through soul-crushing bureaucracy to an almost Kafkaesque degree. 

It’s to Loznitsa and cinematographer Oleg Mutu’s credit that the film is eminently watchable and incredibly suspenseful. We can immerse ourselves in the starkly still, desaturated tableaus, which sometimes resemble a stage-play, and experience the doomed clock ticking along with Kornyev in real-time.

The film’s ensemble is uniformly excellent, with Kuznetsov giving his admirably flawed character equal parts dignity and face-palming frustration. Kornyev ignores clues that are right in front of him while remaining steadfast in his beliefs of right and wrong, and who he assumes is on which side of the scale.

In this sense, Kornyev is a maddeningly flawed character that we desperately want to “wake up”; but his faith in government also reflects a deep-seated optimism that nobly counters the society, and film, that he’s a piece of. Many of the actors actually fled Russia following Putin’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

“Two Prosecutors” is a coldly engrossing watch. Its intense focus on the here-and-now and economical storytelling doesn’t bog us down in historical dumps or convoluted plotting.

Loznitsa’s film is quietly unrelenting — celebrating Kornyev’s determination while mocking his naivete (partially through some weirdly buoyant musical interludes); he’s existing within a dystopian system that cannot simply be dismantled by “doing the right thing.” 

Loznitsa paints obvious parallels to modern times, if we’re willing to look, and “Two Prosecutors” shouldn’t be missed.

“Two Prosecutors” is a 2025 legal thriller from Ukranian director Sergei Loznitsa and run time is 1 hour, 58 minutes. It plays Friday through Sunday, May 8-10, as part of the Webster University Film Series, which takes place om the Winifred Moore Auditorium, Webster Hall, 470 E. Lockwood, Webster Groves, MO 63119. Alex’s Grade: A