A recently qualified medical doctor, Dmitri Malyanov, has taken a posting to a remote and very poor part of Soviet Turkmenistan.

On top of his day job as a pediatrician Malyanov is undertaking research into the effects of religious practice on human health.

His research has drawn the politically incorrect conclusion that religious faith does indeed improve health.

Days of Eclipse is filmed using unusual cinematographic techniques in a half-documentary manner where black-and-white and sepia frames alternate with color.

Sokurov chose for the film's location the town in Turkmenistan where he had spent his childhood as the son of an Army officer.