2012 Cannes Film Festival Predictions: Sergei Loznitsa’s In the Fog

Gist: This is an existential World War II drama made with German, Latvian, and Dutch funding. Once again employing dire humanity, revenge, and societal collapse, In the Fog is based on a novel by Belorussian writer Vassily Bykov and portrays “a man trying to make a moral choice under immoral circumstances”, which sounds just about right for the bleak Russian. Like his debut, Loznitsa will once again call on the talents of Romanian Director of Photography Oleg Mutu, who lensed such modern classics as The Death of Mr. Lazarescu and 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days.

Prediction: While My Joy wasn’t exactly a blockbuster success in the 2010 Main Competition, taking home no prizes and hardly anyone outright raving about it, the film definitely has its supporters, and it was nothing if not a bold first step into fictional storytelling for the experimental documentarian. Look for this to play in Competition again, or at the very least UCR.