In the Fog Reviews
ViewLondon
Despite a string of impressive performances, there's little spark to this Russian-language slow burner and as a result, it can be rather dull and effortful to watch at times.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
AV Club
Takes a long, slow, and exceedingly bleak and morose look at the moral choices of three Belorussian soldiers during the German occupation of WWII.
Full Review
| Original Score: C+
Guardian [UK]
It turns out to be another of those infuriating Cannes near-misses: an iron-clad dreadnought of a picture, impressive in its way but lacking the flash and fire of Loznitsa's previous picture, My Joy.
Electric Sheep
In The Fog is one of the most impressive films of this year, a brutal tale told in the most languid language imaginable. Unmissable and a terrific step forward for Sergei Loznitsa.
Top CriticDirector Sergei Loznitsa often employs dreamy, intricately choreographed long-takes reminiscent of Russian filmmakers Andrei Tarkovsky, Aleksei Guerman, and Aleksandr Sokurov.
Screen International
A carefully-calebrated three-hander from Sergei Loznitsa, its slow, precise rhythms playing out to compelling effect.
Daily Express
Nothing is clear in a film that is as challenging as it is rewarding.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
Loznitsa knows that war exists and won't go away; rather than indulging in patriotic or pacifistic platitudes, he tries to show what it might do to our souls. And, in this writer's opinion, he succeeds.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
A ponderous trudge at times, it is ultimately worth the journey.
Financial Times
Though he is more often a documentary maker, In the Fog marks a profound shift for Loznitsa: there is nothing ad hoc or casual here.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
Little White Lies
In The Fog finds Loznitsa pinning down an assured narrative groove.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
Observer [UK]
Sergei Loznitsa's stark parable about Soviet collaboration with the Nazis has echoes of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky.
The List
The performances possess a powerful authenticity, whilst the poignancy of the fog-bound finale lingers in the mind.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
Guardian [UK]
In the Fog is an intense, slow-burning and haunting drama.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
Sight and Sound
Possibly the slowest and most contemplative war film ever made, In the Fog is a delicately complex work of shifting perspectives.
This is London
[An] austere but never ponderous film about war, and its effect on those caught up in impossible circumstances ...
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
Empire Magazine
Like Come And See in neighbouring Belarus, it's a stark vision of humanity in a hellish world. Tough and thought-provoking.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
