This is the story of one of the most famous Russian filmmakers: Alexei German. He spent several years shooting of his last film Hard to be a god. It is a film about a man who tries to fight slavery and advocate freedom.
That makes his life difficult, but his art unique. It’s a film about his complex relationship with his team, which he rules with an iron hand. This is a film about freedom and power, about the authority and submission of men, about impossible dream to change the course of history. It is a film about the paradoxes of Russia.
At last, this is a film about the vision of the Swiss director and its relationship to this universe. In a certain way, he shares the fate of the main character of German’s film: the one of a casual observer on another planet: Russia.