The book that almost got its author killed—and won him the Nobel instead.
As Russian writer Boris Pasternak (1890-1960) thinks it is impossible that his novel Doctor Zhivago is published in the Soviet Union, because it supposedly shows a critical view of the October Revolution, he decides to smuggle several copies of the manuscript out of the country. It is first published in 1957 in Italia and the author receives the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1958, which has consequences.
Direction
Kirtadzé treats documents like spy footage—taut, intimate, paranoid.
Production
Archival Soviet footage hits different when you know what's at stake.
Director
Nino Kirtadzé
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The original Italian title 'La neve e il fuoco' referenced Pasternak's poem about snow surviving flames—fitting for a banned book.
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