August 1942: Amidst the unimaginable suffering inflicted during the blockade of Leningrad by the German Wehrmacht, an orchestra director was given an almost impossible task: to stage the premiere of Dimitri Shostakovitch's "Leningrad Symphony". The performance became a symbol of the brief triumph of culture over the barbarism of war.

A double portrait of two dictators who were thousands of miles apart but were constantly fixated on each other.

Amateur actors read stories from a book describing the 900-day siege of Leningrad during World War II.