Begun in 1981 by filmmaker Semen Aranovich, this portrait of Shostakovich gained Sokurov’s distinctive mark after the director was invited to participate in editing archival footage for the film. The result of the collaboration is a musical biography and meditation on artistic silence that is fleshed out within a broad historical context: it portrays the composer’s struggle with Stalin’s regime, employing newsreel footage of the siege of Leningrad and military parades as well as of Shostakovich and his family. The film was banned immediately on completion and not released until the perestroika in 1986.