Sergei Loznitsa, who effortlessly crosses drama and documentary films, does so again in his new film, The Trial, reproducing an archived video of the infamous Moscow Trials of the 1930s. The film, which reconstructs the situations from historical footage, contains a more vivid and stable view of the process of a false trial under the Stalinist regime. Just like Loznitsa’s work in Donbass, The Trial captures everything in it like it is documenting a live performance. The film shows the accused summoned to the court, those who came to observe the trial, judges, prosecutors, and witnesses as if they were actors to reveal that the trial was a hoax and a showy performance. The scenes in the movie make us feel the atmosphere of the trial as much as the story of the trial process. It shows the possibility and power of archive images both in artistic and social terms. (Lee Seungmin)