Review: In the Fog (12A)

There is an overwhelming sense of waiting for something to happen as one watches Sergei Loznitsa’s slow-moving wartime drama in which various characters spend a great deal of time staring at one another.
By Tony Earnshaw
Published 3rd May 2013, 10:58 BST

But this helps determine the crux of the main character’s dilemma as he ruminates on how he has become a tiny pawn in a much bigger battle of wills. Sushenya, a farmer, is dragged from his home by partisans, former friends who believe him to be a collaborator with the Nazis.

Arrested and released when three of his friends were hanged, Sushenya (Vladimir Svirskiy) finds himself trapped between what people suspect him of and what he himself knows he did (or didn’t) do.

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Loznitsa sets the heart of his story in the fog-shrouded woods, the place where Sushenya will be shot after he has dug his own grave. What no-one expects is for his would-be executioner to be shot by local police, and for his prisoner to play nursemaid to a wounded man.

In the Fog (aka V Tumane) adopts many of the themes 
of Remarque’s All Quiet on 
the Western Front as two enemies mull over their various roles. Both have 
fallen victim to Nazi trickery as they breed suspicion and paranoia among the local populace.

Long-winded and at times theatrical, In the Fog will nonetheless reward patient audiences.

On staggered release

At Sheffield Showroom from today.