What’s most startling about the film for me, however, is not the Russian history and filmmaking per se, but the relevance Two Prosecutors has to our present day.

The film is extraordinary : the measured pace exerts an ever-tightening chokehold of tension, and the period details are brilliantly evoked.

It sheds light on history so we don’t forget it but do learn from it. It’s the work of a true artist.

Losznitsa, a director who primarily films documentaries, lets his cameras roll for extended sequences, allowing the spaces to come to life and the characters time to inhabit them.