This film from Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa it is a remarkable record of the popular demonstration in Kiev’s Independence Square (the Maidan Nezalezhnosti) during the winter of 2013-14, against the pro-Moscow presidency of Viktor Yanukovych. The protests led to his downfall, and to violent chaos, the deaths of 100 protesters and the start of the ongoing confrontation between pro-Russian and pro-EU factions. With no music or voiceover, Loznitsa captures the event with a series of long, uninterrupted shots of the crowded square and neighbouring places from (mostly) fixed camera positions. The hypnotic, deep-focus scenes look like images from some deadly serious, modern version of Les Misérables. The camera appears to have been positioned miraculously, almost invisibly, creating the impression of access to a vivid, unmediated reality. It utterly negates the grammar of television news: there is no Orla Guerin giving us commentary in the bottom of the frame, and the camera does not dramatically flinch and swivel at the awful moments. At times, with the derisive anti-presidential singing – “Vitya ciao, Vitya ciao, Vitya ciao, ciao, ciao!” – this reminded me of something like a 60s pop happening. When someone warns the crowd about a government sniper, it feels like the announcer at Woodstock passing on concern about the brown acid. But underneath the paving stones of the Maidan, there is no beach. When the inevitable funerals happen, the mood is sombre. One of the many poets and singers on the stage says: “What does a man exist for? He exists for love.” The idealism attains a haunted, tragic dimension by the end of the film.