(Jessica Oreck, 2019, USA, 93 minutes)

One Man Dies a Million Times, the first narrative film from acclaimed documentarian Jessica Oreck (Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo), is based on a true story that occurred in 1940s Leningrad, here transplanted to the near future, concerning a pair of botanists at the world’s first seed bank. As the war wages outside the walls of the Institute of Plant Genetic Resources, our botanists, Alyssa and Maksim, have to at once study and protect these irreplaceable seeds, which are the future of the nation’s food supply. Owing a debt to Tarkovsky and shot in dreamy black & white by acclaimed cinematographer Sean Price Williams (Good Time), One Man Dies a Million Times will only ever be viewable theatrically, with neither streaming nor physical media release planned.

In Russian with English subtitles.