Alexander Shein's bold, avant-garde biographical drama that abandons traditional cinematic structure to explore the turbulent life and tragic destiny of futurist poet Vladimir Mayakovsky. Operating as a highly meta-theatrical "film-within-a-film," the narrative opens in a rehearsal studio where a group of prominent modern actors begin reading a script about the revolutionary writer. As the boundaries between reality and performance dissolve, the actors—including Yuri Kolokolnikov as the fiery poet and Chulpan Khamatova as his legendary muse Lilya Brik—gradually transform into the real historical figures. Blending fictionalized documentary footage, poetry recitals, and striking visual installations, the film captures Mayakovsky’s intense romantic upheavals, his fraught relationship with Soviet authorities, and the crushing moral stagnation that ultimately led to his suicide.

Presented in Russian w/ English subtitles.