This film is a living history. Nikita Khrushchev’s closest family members and historians tell a story from the centre of power. This unique biography of a witness of the century comes alive in the shadow of the events he was part of.

Despite being an ardent Stalinist for many years, it was Nikita Khrushchev who put an end to his predecessor’s terror. Khrushchev remains a figure of contrasts, who sought a peaceful accommodation of the contending systems of global order, but brought the world to the edge of nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He built the Berlin Wall. He was a reformer who was defeated both by the system and by himself. What remains is the memory of a shoe he pounded on a table during a UN General Assembly session.

Stalin’s terror, World War II, de-Stalinization and the gravest crises of the Cold War — all this is closely entwined with Nikita Khrushchev.