The movie is based on “The Blockade Book” written by Daniil Granin and Ales Adamovich, parts of which are read on film by famous Russian actors, journalists, primary school pupils, universities students, members of the military and Blockade veterans. The book tells the stories of those who survived the Leningrad Blockade. It was 900 days of horror and undoubtedly one of the most difficult times of World War II for the Soviet people.

“I shot this movie as a reminder of what the price of life is, and that it happens so that sometimes the price is inadmissibly high. To me, the events surrounding the Leningrad Blockade are no less tragic or terrible than the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombing. This is a historical and cultural calamity for all people and of this city, which has always been the centre of culture and a state civilization,” the director says.

Sokurov will present the film in Venice along with his first book, “Round the Ocean”, recently released in Italian. The book will include stories, essays, and also sections devoted to the revolutionary Soviet Russian film director and theorist, Sergey Eisenstein, and a history of cinema.

In 2007, on the 64th film forum in Venice, Sokurov received Robert Bresson’s award “For spiritual searches in cinema.”