In 1937, amid Joseph Stalin’s Great Purge, a young Soviet prosecutor, Kornyev, recently graduated from law school, comes across a letter written by a prisoner who he believes is the victim of corruption by the secret police. Drawn from a suppressed story by gulag survivor Georgy Demidov, Sergei Loznitsa’s haunting film unravels a disturbing parable of bureaucratic evil and the insidious micro-processes of tyranny.

“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 USSR at the height of Stalin’s Great Purge.” Jordan Mintzer, The Hollywood Reporter

“This is not the kind of movie that hinges on abrupt reveals or gratuitous twists. Indeed, the banal predictability of Kornyev’s slowly mounting humiliations and disillusionments is very much the point.” Jessica Kiang, Variety