Captain Fyodor Volkonogov is an esteemed and enthusiastic enforcer for the Soviet security organs - it's 1938 and the Great Terror is rattling along at full tilt.
When his peers start to be sent for 're-evaluation', Volkonogov senses something amiss and makes a break through the backstreets of Leningrad. Enduring a profound crisis of conscience and a relentless manhunt by his former colleagues, Fyodor is accosted by otherworldly apparitions.
He must find one living person to grant him forgiveness for his atrocities, or forever be subjected to the torments of Hell... but are executioners really worthy of redemption?
Part hallucinatory ghost tale, part propulsive historical thriller,
Captain Volkonogov Escaped is an elegantly styled and thought-provoking parable that channels Dostoyevskian moral questioning against a backdrop of striking Constructivist aesthetics.
Natasha Merkulova and Aleksey Chupov's timely reimagining of the Stalinist purges competed for the Golden Lion at the 2021 Venice Biennale, before the film's domestic release in Russia was 'indefinitely delayed' at the start of 2022. Oscar nominee Yuri Borisov (
Anora, Compartment No. 6) leads with a superbly chilling, if not darkly funny, performance as the soul-searching Volkonogov.
Klassiki is a video-on-demand platform which is dedicated exclusively to cinema from Eastern Europe - including Ukraine, Russia, and the Baltics - the Caucasus and Central Asia
