Babi Yar. Context

Sergei Loznitsa's documentary is about what happened in the Babi Yar ravine in Kyiv on 29 and 30 September 1941, and about the period around it. The documented record is this: over two days 33,771 Jews were shot by Sonderkommando 4a of Einsatzgruppe C, assisted by the southern police regiment and Ukrainian auxiliary police units. The film does not tell those two days on their own, which is what its title says. Using footage gathered from German, Russian and Ukrainian archives between 1941 and 1952, it shows what came before and after the occupation, and it brings local collaboration into the frame as well. There is no narrator, no commentary and no music; it is built from image and sound alone. It took the jury special prize and the best documentary award at Cannes.