It premiered at the 2018 Berlin International Film Festival in competition on 17 February, where it was awarded a Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution for costume and production design.

The film tells about a few days in the life of writer Sergei Dovlatov (Milan Marić) in 1971 Leningrad, on the eve of the emigration of his friend, the future Nobel laureate Joseph Brodsky (Artur Beschastny).

Sergei is determined to stay and lead a normal life with his wife Elena (Helena Sujecka) and daughter Katya (Eva Herr).

His friend is artist David (Danila Kozlovsky), a fartsovshchik who sells foreign goods on the black market.

[2] Metacritic gives the film a weighted average score of 68 out of 100, based on 8 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".