Run time: 118 mins

(Subtitled)

Darkly absurdist Ukrainian filmmaker Sergey Loznitsa returns to the Soviet era with a Kafkaesque satire that provokes uneasy smiles rather than outright laughs.

Set during the paranoia of the 1930s purges, the story examines justice, power and loyalty in a system determined to consume its own believers. Young prosecutor Kornev (Alexander Kuznetsov) is drawn into a disturbing case when a cryptic message written in blood escapes from a forbidding labour prison in Bryansk. As he pushes for answers, he discovers that guards and police are forcing prisoners to sign fabricated confessions. Attempts to raise the alarm locally go nowhere, so Kornev sets out for Moscow to confront chief prosecutor Andrey Vyshinsky (Anatoly Beliy) himself, only to find layer upon layer of bureaucracy blocking the way.

Loznitsa stages this journey with cool precision. Endless gates, corridors and waiting rooms become obstacles in their own right, turning Kornev’s search for justice into an almost surreal ordeal.

Kuznetsov anchors the film with an open, idealistic performance, portraying a man who still believes the system must ultimately do the right thing. Watching that faith collide with the machinery of authoritarian power proves both chilling and oddly darkly funny.