A GENTLE CREATURE

A woman lives alone on the outskirts of a village in Russia. One day she receives a parcel she sent to her incarcerated husband, marked ‘return to sender’. Shocked and confused, the woman has no choice but to travel to the prison in a remote region of the country in search of an explanation.

Inspired by a Dostoyevsky story, this fierce drama from Sergei Loznitsa is the continuation of a career of making genre-bending films unveiling the state of post-Soviet Russia. Centered around a gripping lead performance, the film underscores the undoing of civil society with claustrophobic fervor.