The film recounts the life of the composer Dmitri Shostakovich from the perspective of a film director, played by Armin Mueller-Stahl, who is shooting a movie about Shostakovich. While editing the film, the director shifts through scenes from feature films for which Shostakovich wrote the music during the rule of Stalin. The director meets and interviews family members and companions of the composer, such as Mstislav Rostropovich. Key moments in the life of Shostakovich are re-enacted with marionette puppets. At the end of his investigation, the director realises that he is unable to draw a clear-cut portrait of the composer - what his interview partners tell him is just too contradictory.

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