Two prosecutors

The film is set in 1937 in the Soviet Union, at the height of Stalin's purges. In a provincial prison, thousands of letters from falsely accused prisoners are burned in one of the cells. Against all odds, one of them reaches a young, idealistic Alexander Korneev, who is just starting work as a local prosecutor.

The man does everything in his power to meet with the prisoner, a victim of the NKVD agents. The young prosecutor begins to realize that he has ended up in a place where truth and justice are not important. However, he is determined enough that the case he is working on ends up in the office of the prosecutor general in Moscow. Korneyev is forced to confront the absurdities and cruelty of the regime, discovering that his idealism is of little use against the elaborate totalitarian machine.

This film by the outstanding documentary and feature film director Sergei Loznitsa is based on a story by Georgy Demidov. Although it is set in the 1930s, it remains a topical story about the enslavement and helplessness of individuals caught up in the machinery of an authoritarian system.