Before and During

Late Soviet stagnation, Moscow. Alyosha - a writer who suffers from fits accompanied by memory loss - admits himself to a psychiatric institute for experimental treatment.

Inspired by Ivan the Terrible's “Memorial Book of the Disgraced” and his own spiritual crisis, Alyosha has been trying to record the memories of people in his life who “died before their time, leaving nothing behind except in my memory”. In hospital, however, he changes tack and decides to dedicate his Memorial Book to th...