[1] It was selected as the Russian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 91st Academy Awards, but it was not nominated.

The main character of the movie is the Jewish-Soviet soldier Alexander Pechersky, who was a lieutenant in the Red Army.

In October 1943, he was deported to the Sobibor death camp, where Jews were being exterminated in gas chambers.

[10] In early reports, Andrei Malyukov was credited as director,[11] but at a press conference in September 2017, it was revealed that Khabensky in fact directed the film.

[16] The Schlauch (or "Tube") that led to the gas chamber was not underground but an outdoor fenced path covered in branches.