This feature film is dedicated to the world-renowned Ukrainian director Oleksandr Dovzhenko and is set in Odesa in 1926 - a city reborn after the First World War and the Civil War, alive and thriving in the age of the NEP: jazz, boxing, literature, vibrant cuisine, and the sea... It’s the era of romantics, writers, and the dawn of cinema. And cinema, in Odesa, is a passion. Our film tells the story of how young satirical artist and aspiring writer Sashko Dovzhenko takes his first steps into the world of filmmaking, the journey of how he becomes a professional director. It is important to note that this is the first-ever narrative feature film in the history of world cinema to portray the legendary Oleksandr Dovzhenko, whose work has been recognised among the twelve greatest films of all time. The film opens in the summer of 1926, when Dovzhenko, still a debutant, arrives in Odesa to work on what he hopes will be his first major project. But disappointment awaits: instead of directing Zvenyhora, based on the screenplay by Johansen and Tyutyunnyk for which he had already prepared illustrations, the head of the film studio, Pavlo Nechesa, assigns him a propaganda project glorifying Soviet diplomatic couriers Nette and Makhmastal, and demands a film that praises the state security services. Dovzhenko is disheartened, but persuaded by his friend Yuriy Yanovsky, the studio’s editor-in-chief, he reluctantly agrees to go ahead with the work. Production is tightly controlled by the NKVD, whose methods push the young director to a breaking point. Emotionally shattered, Dovzhenko refuses to complete the film. It is only thanks to the help of his loyal friends Yuriy Yanovsky and his companion Ida Penzo, along with the support of the studio’s seasoned director, that he finds the strength to recover. Sashko, Ida, and Yura are young, passionate, and entangled in love. With their support and with help from scriptwriter Moysey Zatz and even Pavlo Nechesa himself, Dovzhenko rewrites the script. Together with cinematographer Kozlovskyi, he creates an adventure film that wins the hearts of viewers. But this new film contains hardly a word about Soviet couriers, and the NKVD has vanished altogether. Instead, the screen bursts with images of the English workers’ movement, jazz, boxing, ballet, and foreign police. The NKVD may have lost this round, but the Soviet regime knows how to take revenge and crush its artists. And so, consequences follow for our main characters…