This is a metaphorical story about the tragic and mysterious death of the most powerful poet of 1960s, human rights activist, hero of Ukraine Vasyl Stus and his struggle with the Soviet system. The events of the film unfold during the last attempt by the KGB to seduce the poet with a whimsical "freedom".
Acting
Yaroshenko's Stus burns quiet, refusing to perform victimhood for his captors.
Direction
Brovko turns interrogation rooms into psychological battlegrounds of dignity.
Writing
Dialogue so precise it feels translated from poetry — and censored by force.
Director
Roman Brovko
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Stus remains Ukraine's most read poet; his trial transcripts were classified until 1990. The film's production coincided with renewed Russian aggression, making its excavation of Soviet erasure urgently political.
Director Brovko cast theater actors deliberately — the KGB interrogations are staged as perverse one-act plays where Stus refuses his 'role.'
UA
