The convoluted and moving story of Russian writer Vassili Grossman (1905-64) and his novel Life and Fate (1980), a literary masterpiece, a monumental and epic account of life under Stalin's regime of terror, a defiant cry that the KGB tried to suffocate.

Elsa Lepoivre
as Self - Narrator (voice)

Denis Podalydès
as Self - Narrator (voice)

Olga Turbina
as Self - Archivist

Fedor Guber
as Self - Grossman's Son

Alexis Berelowitch
as Self - Grossman's Translator

Ekaterina Korotkova-Grossman
as Self - Grossman's Daughter

Olivier Rolin
as Self - Writer

Vladimir Voinovich
as Self - Writer

Anthony Beevor
as Self - Historian

Bernard Pivot
as Self - TV Host (archive footage)