Sergei Novikov

Princess Iolanta’s blindness is a well-guarded state secret that risks sparking another war. When Count Vaudémont falls in love with her and offers to cure her blindness, Iolanta is faced with a choice: to continue as before or live her life in a way she has never experienced. Director Sergey Novikov moves the story of the king’s blind daughter to our own time when an overpowering wealth of information prevents us from seeing the true beauty of the world. Tchaikovsky’s last opera – at the peak of his career – was much acclaimed at the premiere in St. Petersburg in 1892. A year later, it premiered at Royal Swedish Opera, but the one-act opera has not been performed in Stockholm since then.

The film tells about the childhood of Yuri Gagarin, about that time of life, which, in his own words, played an important role in shaping his character: war, the occupation of their villages by the Germans, famine, the theft of the elder brother and sister to Germany, the expulsion of the Nazis from Smolensk, moving family in the city of Gzhatsk.