Retro IONCINEMA.com

Alternative TIFF 2010 Picks: #20. Sergei Loznitsa’s My Joy

I’m happy to see TIFF and NYFF programmers include this difficult film among their lineups, cuz if you like “the road less traveled” roadtrip type of movie, then you’ll want to venture into documentarian Sergei Loznitsa’s first narrative feature — one of the highlights of my Cannes experience this year that actually got panned — perhaps because it was so non-conform and psychologically messed up.

Eric Lavallée

Published on September 7, 2010

#20. My Joy

Director: Sergei Loznitsa
Cast: Viktor Nemets, Vlad Ivanov, Maria Varsami, Vladimir Golovin, Olga Shuvalova, Alexey Vertkov, Yuriy Sviridenko
Distributor: Rights Available.

Buzz: I’m happy to see TIFF and NYFF programmers include this difficult film among their lineups, cuz if you like “the road less traveled” roadtrip type of movie, then you’ll want to venture into documentarian Sergei Loznitsa’s first narrative feature — one of the highlights of my Cannes experience this year that actually got panned — perhaps because it was so non-conform and psychologically messed up.

The Gist: The story about a few days in the life of truck driver Georgi seems to be a never-ending nightmare, a spiral of violence and abuses of power. A man goes to work and on his way he is sucked into the everyday madness of his country, losing his health and memory in the process and ends up as a murderer, who calmly lies down to sleep after committing the crime. A dark parable about the situation in deep Russia today.

TIFF Schedule: Saturday September 11 6:15:00 PM VARSITY 7
Monday September 13 2:15:00 PM AMC 4
Sunday September 19 8:00:00 PM JACKMAN HALL – AGO

Related Topics:

Eric Lavallée

Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist and critic at IONCINEMA.com (founded in 2000). Eric is a regular at Sundance, Cannes and TIFF. He has a BFA in Film Studies at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013 he served as a Narrative Competition Jury Member at the SXSW Film Festival. He was an associate producer on Mark Jackson's This Teacher (2018 LA Film Festival, 2018 BFI London). In 2022 he served as a New Flesh Comp for Best First Feature at the 2022 Fantasia Intl. Film Festival. Current top films for 2022 include Tár (Todd Field), All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen), Aftersun (Charlotte Wells).