Two Prosecutors
Janus Films | Release Date: March 20, 2026 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
85
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 24 Critic Reviews
Positive:
21
Mixed:
3
Negative:
0

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Original-CinLiam LaceyMar 25, 2026
Historical hindsight lets us predict where this kind of train ride inevitably ends. Read full review
100
RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyMar 20, 2026
While Loznitsa’s films, particularly his documentaries, often have a terrifying epic sweep, “Two Prosecutors,” as its title implies, is an altogether more intimate undertaking. And no less terrifying for all that. Read full review
100
The GuardianPeter BradshawMay 20, 2025
It is a very disturbing parable of the insidious micro-processes of tyranny. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesTim GriersonMar 26, 2026
There are many ways to portray authoritarianism, but Two Prosecutors is penetrating in its depiction of a society being slowly poisoned. The film might be too much to bear if it wasn’t so brilliantly conceived and executed. Read full review
90
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriMar 25, 2026
What distinguishes Two Prosecutors is not its overall narrative trajectory (which reads more like a bitter cosmic joke than anything else) but rather how Loznitsa subtly colors in Kornyev’s journey through the halls of power. Read full review
90
Wall Street JournalZachary BarnesMar 20, 2026
The movie has an elegant, almost symmetrical narrative economy. It’s at once orderly and disorienting, as though following a plan drawn by M.C. Escher. Read full review
90
The New York TimesNicolas RapoldMar 20, 2026
Mordantly comedic, Two Prosecutors is deliberately paced but makes a tightly conceived addition to Loznitsa’s work, which rides deep into the long, dark nights of Russian history with fiction, observational documentary and immersions in the Soviet archives. Read full review
90
VarietyJessica KiangMay 20, 2025
In Two Prosecutors, perhaps out of deference to the source text, Loznitsa plays it straighter than in either of those titles and the result is much stronger for it, as though he has met some self-set challenge to see how efficiently a rigorously formal aesthetic can evoke the pervading, dehumanizing horrors of living under totalitarian control. Read full review
90
Screen RantPatrice WitherspoonMay 20, 2025
This story of civic injustice isn’t just a great achievement by the director. It’s a cautionary tale about the repetition of tragic moments in history. Read full review
90
Screen DailyJonathan RomneyMay 20, 2025
Two Prosecutors is crisply fable-like in construction. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterJordan MintzerMay 20, 2025
Impeccably directed and impressively acted, this slow-burn story of political injustice is filled to the brim with atmosphere — specifically the stifling, claustrophobic atmosphere of the U.S.S.R. at the height of Stalin’s Great Purge. Read full review
88
The Associated PressJake CoyleMar 26, 2026
Beyond any direct lines of connection between past and present, “Two Prosecutors” has the neatness and timelessness of a parable, one that Gogol might have written, and one that could resonate in any era where the naively courageous challenge fascism. Read full review
85
Film ThreatHannah CronkSep 23, 2025
Two Prosecutors does not offer the audience easy answers or an emotional release; this restraint is exactly what gives it power. It’s a heavy film, one that is important and deserves to be seen. Read full review
85
TheWrapSteve PondMay 20, 2025
The film moves slowly but relentlessly, with each new moment showing just how dangerous the lead character’s idealism really is. Read full review
83
IndieWireDavid KatzMay 20, 2025
Ultimately, Two Prosecutors is like a perfect 50-50 cocktail of dread and dialogue, the vodka being whichever you’d choose, making the inevitable feel capable of deferment, before it strikes more devastatingly than you’d even think. Read full review
80
The Irish TimesDonald ClarkeMar 25, 2026
It would be a mistake to seek too many lessons from the film. Its great achievement is in the creation of a timeless nowhere that is both drawn from history and independent of it. That is the absurdist ideal. Read full review
80
Time OutPhil de SemlyenMar 18, 2026
A slow cinema treat, Two Prosecutors rewards patience, with endless waiting rooms and antechambers both a limbo state and a last-chance saloon for Kornyev. It’s a haunting, mesmerising, pessimistic piece of work. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenApr 2, 2026
The film moves at a slow and deliberate pace, much like the wheels of justice. As viewers, we come to feel ensnarled in the grip of bureaucratic entanglement, much like Kornyev, fighting for justice against diminishing odds. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineEli FriedbergOct 7, 2025
The film is a satiric look at Stalinism and bureaucracy with shades of Kafka, Orwell, and Gogol. Read full review
75
The PlaylistGregory EllwoodMay 20, 2025
Loznitsa and his creative team have been meticulous in how every shot plays out. And as hinted earlier, the entire motion picture is meticulous to a fault. It’s only a somewhat twisty ending that saves the endeavor from blowing its relevance away. Read full review
75
The Film StageLeonardo GoiMay 20, 2025
If Loznitsa has cited Gogol and Kafka as touchstones, there are scenes in Two Prosecutors that echo the bleak absurdism of Roy Andersson. Read full review
60
IONCINEMA.comNicholas BellMar 28, 2026
At a point in time, a film like Two Prosecutors would seem like an old fashioned recapitulation of a dark, disastrous period we’d safely moved away from. However, it’s difficult not to see crystal clear parallels, on an operational level at the least, with NKVD, an agency operating with complete autonomy, and something like the newly minted monstrosity DOGE in the US. Read full review
60
Little White LiesDavid JenkinsMar 26, 2026
It’s a supremely well-made piece of work whose function and message never quite manage to transcend the prosaic. Still, in the strange times we’re currently living through, maybe it’s worth sounding that necessary siren one more time for luck. Read full review
40
The TimesKevin MaherMay 20, 2025
His legal ambitions are thus stymied at every turn by missed appointments and disinterested power players, resulting in glacial narrative pacing and a miserably predictable outcome. It is, at best, vaguely Kafka-esque but also, for the viewer, quite the trial. Read full review
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