Letter

In 2001, appeared – a feature-length documentary about a psychiatric institution in the village of Oksochi, in the west of Russia. While shooting that film, Sergei Loznitsa also made a short film using a special camera. The images are processed so as to make them appear as if they were taken in the early years of the 20th century. has a clear narrative, following a day in the lives of the patients in the institution. is more metaphorical. The camera moves past the houses and across the fields where the patients work. As the images are all slightly out of focus, they seem like ghosts in a timeless landscape. We hear the sound of cows and of hay being loaded onto a wagon. But the people’s voices are muted, their pain and individuality removed. Here, they are simply patients. In the fall of 2013, the institution was destroyed by fire. Dozens of patients and staff lost their lives.