Leningrad, 1938. The Stalinist machine is running at full throttle, seeking out enemies of the state and executing the innocent. One of the executioners is well-respected Captain Volkonogov, who one day realizes the heinous nature of the system of which he has become a part. On a sudden impulse, he decides to seek out the relatives of his victims and to ask for forgiveness, even though he risks being silenced. Can executioners get into heaven? This brisk thriller, enlivened by the use of horror tropes, tries to find traces of human conscience beneath layers of an ideology that turns people into corpses even before they die. Shown in competition at Venice, the film stands out thanks to a convincing performance by Yuriy Borisov, the chilling humor, and the way it pays homage to Russian absurdist art.