Few books have created real change in the world, and “The Gulag Archipelago” is one of those books whose truth changed everything. Over 50 years have passed since its publication and dizzying success, which undermined thought about and faith in communism, the Soviet Union, and the entire world. This film tells the story of the book – from its writing to its being smuggled to the West – and the life story of its author, the dissident Aleksander Solzhenitsyn.

Solzhenitsyn was a prisoner in labor camps and managed to write some of his first works there, under the KGB’s nose. After his release, he wrote “The Gulag Archipelago,” which detailed the Soviet machine of repression that led to the deaths of millions, and revealed the bitter truth about communism as a totalitarian regime. The book’s publication in the West led to Solzhenitsyn’s expulsion from the Soviet Union. The film features interviews with the author, his friends and family, and colleagues from the world of art and literature – including writer Heinrich Böll, who hosted Solzhenitsyn in Germany after he was stripped of his Soviet citizenship.