Soviet Union, 1937. Thousands of letters from detainees falsely accused by the regime are burned in a prison cell. The alleged political opponents and dissidents send these to their relatives and to Stalin, petitioning for a pardon. Against all odds, one of these letters reaches its destination, upon the desk of the newly appointed local prosecutor, Alexander Kornev. Kornev does his utmost to meet the prisoner, a victim of corrupt agents of the secret police, the NKVD. A dedicated Bolshevik of integrity, the young prosecutor suspects foul play. His quest for justice will take him all the way to the office of the Attorney General in Moscow.
"The 1930s have really not been properly represented in Soviet and post-Soviet Russian cinema - and yet this is perhaps the biggest tragedy that happened in the territory that used to be called the Russian Empire. It is exactly this lack of reflection that causes history to repeat itself – and we see now how rapidly contemporary Russia is moving toward Stalinism." (Sergei Loznitsa)
Sergej Loznica
Born in 1964 in the city of Baranovichi, in Belarus, considered to be a Ukrainian filmmaker. Loznitsa grew up in Kiev, and graduated with a degree in mathematics. Later he worked both as a scientist in the field of cybernetics and a translator from Japanese. Graduated in filmmaking in Moscow in 1997. He has directed several documentary films since 1996 and has received numerous international awards. Loznitsa debuted as a fiction filmmaker in 2010.