In Kyiv, a group of children visit the Natural History Museum under the guidance of their paleontology teacher. Like magic, the teacher transports the children to a distant world where war does not exist. Director Sergei Loznitsa captures moments of the children's concentration and wonder through static screens without narration or interviews. The film quietly overlaps ancient extinction with present violence, showing how learning and curiosity can become methods of resistance and recovery.

 Director Sergei Loznitsa’s short film Paleontology Lesson offers a startlingly intimate perspective on the ongoing war in Ukraine. Following his 16th DMZ Docs selection The Invasion, Loznitsa turns his lens toward a school field trip taking place just outside the immediate reach of the front lines. 

While war rages in the streets, children in Kyiv’s Museum of Natural History find a brief sanctuary from its memory. Twice, air raid sirens sound. Yet the museum teacher leads the children on a journey millions of years into the past, momentarily supplanting the reality of war with a fearless immersion in prehistory. The film is more than a simple lesson; it captures the profound human yearning to replace present fear with ancient wonder. Inside the museum, the children vibrate with awe before the mysteries of the prehistoric world; outside the frame, the city trembles from missile strikes. In its final moments, Paleontology Lesson offers a magical, hopeful pivot, suggesting that an escape into the deep past can, paradoxically, be a necessary way of surviving the present.

 My primary interest lies not with the soldiers, courageously and heroically defending their land on the battlefields, but with another kind of hero - the "ordinary" men, women and children. It is these civilians, who carry on their shoulders the daily burden of surviving and maintaining a seemingly normal existence under the impossible circumstances of war. I intend to capture and preserve frescos of daily life, bearing witness to the existential drama of my people.

• ProducerMaria CHOUSTOVA, Sergei LOZNITSA
• Screenplay Sergei LOZNITSA
• Cinematography Evgeny ADAMENKO
• Edit Sergei LOZNITSA, Danielius KOKANAUSKIS
• Sound Vladimir GOLOVNITSKI

Atoms & Void

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