Storyline
Andrii Dovzhenko stumbles into a nightmare most people couldn’t even dream up. Turns out, the Soviets weren’t just tossing so-called “anti-Soviet” folks in regular jails—they were locking them away in grim psychiatric hospitals, slapping on some bogus diagnosis like “slow progressive schizophrenia.” That’s where Andrii lands, right in the thick of it, surrounded by people who are suffering not from illness, but from the system itself. It’s brutal, almost surreal, with doctors and guards acting more like jailers than healers. Andrii’s put on the spot: if he gives in and works with the KGB, maybe he can see his family again. But if he stands his ground and exposes the horrors of these psychiatric wards, he knows the price could be his sanity, or worse. The film doesn’t sugarcoat anything—it drags you through the mud of Soviet “justice,” forcing you to see the impossible choices people had to make just to survive. There’s no easy way out, just a constant push and pull between hope and despair.