Two Prosecutors
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Synopsis
Summoned with a blood-written note smuggled out of a prison block, an idealistic Soviet prosecutor (Aleksandr Kuznetsov) pushes past the jail’s leery authorities to interview an elderly, broken-down Bolshevik (Alexander Filippenko) condemned as a political undesirable. The young attorney, determined to expose this miscarriage of justice to the authorities in Moscow, soon finds his efforts stymied as an ever-tightening net of suspicion encircles his investigation. Set at the height of the Great Purge and drenched in the paranoia of Stalin’s police state, the latest triumph from director Sergei Loznitsa is a chilling, Kafkaesque thriller about the impunity of power and the matter-of-fact horrors of totalitarianism.
Picture 8/10
Criterion, through their Premieres line, presents Sergei Loznitsa’s Two Prosecutors on Blu-ray, delivering the film on a dual-layer disc in its original aspect ratio of 1.33:1. It’s presented in 1080p/24hz high-definition.
The film was shot digitally, and it looks it. Though its very muted, gray color scheme contributes to the overall look (discussed in an interview included on the disc), the image has a very flat, very digital texture to it. Details are very good, though, with finer textures coming through nicely. Black levels are a bit mushy, and some artifacts are evident in the darker areas and shadows, but I suspect this is baked into the photography to a degree. The encode appears strong overall and everything appears to be rendered cleanly onscreen.
Ultimately, the presentation looks fine; it’s just limited by the source.
Two Prosecutors - Screen Captures
Audio 8/10
The film comes with a DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround soundtrack. The film is far from flashy in this department, though it does make subtle use of the surround channels to fill out the environments. Ambient noises within buildings, aboard a train, or outside are mixed to the other channels at appropriate levels. Most of the audio remains up front, though, with dialogue primarily focused in the center channel. Despite that, everything sounds clean and sharp, with no obvious distortion, though considering how new the film is, this wasn’t too big of a surprise.
Extras 4/10
As a Premieres release, there isn’t much here, with the original Janus trailer accompanied by an interview with director Sergei Loznitsa, filmed for The Criterion Channel’s Meet the Filmmakers program. Loznitsa talks about his earlier career and the period in Russia between the fall of the Soviet Union and Putin’s rise to power before getting into the story on which the film is based. He covers its history and provides context for the period in which it takes place, drawing comparisons to Russia today. He also discusses finding the right cinematographer, specifically wanting Oleg Mutu, who shot 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, and touches on the tests they conducted with different aspect ratios, sounding to have hemmed and hawed between 1.33:1 and 2.41:1. They ultimately opted for the narrower frame for its sense of confinement in just about every shot of this film, and the program shows one scene in both formats for comparison (and they made the right choice). He also touches on a couple of specific scenes, explaining their origins. It’s only 15 minutes, but it’s surprisingly rich, packing in a good amount of detail about the film.
There’s also a decent, if short, essay by Beatrice Loayza in the included insert, but that’s it.
Closing
A decent presentation accompanied by an intriguing interview with the director.
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