Unveiling intimate never-before-seen footage of Vladimir Putin’s first political campaign, Vitaly Mansky searches for clues to Russia’s fate in the blank stare of its future dictator. This behind-the-scenes view of a global turning point asks profound questions about the politics of personality.

Tracing world history back to an elderly man in an empty home, Vitaly Mansky’s disarmingly simple portrait of a pivotal figure in global politics discovers grand insights in quiet observation. This rigorous yet elegiac study of leadership scrutinizes the messy humanity behind epochal events.