The epic and disastrous 900-day Nazi siege that almost destroyed Leningrad comes alive with fierce and angry intensity in Loznitsa’s incredible and symphonic found footage film. An unflinching chronicle of the near death of a city and the stoic heroism of the Russian resistance, Blockade uses archival footage to skillfully craft almost musical movements describing the harrowing ordeal and revealing fleeting glimpses of the everyday of the stubborn and courageous community that fought back.

Loznitsa takes his camera along to record an attempt to catch fish in a frozen lake in the middle of the snowy Russian plains. In this harsh natural environment, four young men try to rip from the frozen depths of nature.