Lovely Glasnot era piece, broadcast in the UK in the Soviet Spring Season from way back. There may be a better rip out there, perhaps the presence of this one will wake people up to what a good film it is and we’ll see the better version. Just when you thought glasnost had allowed Soviet film-makers to say all there was to say about the horrors of the Stalin years, along comes this astonishing short feature (based on fact) to peel away more layers of the onion. Harassed, middle-aged Sedov is the only lawyer in Moscow willing to take on the defence of four farmers accused of sabotaging their commune and tortured into making false confessions. His dogged persistence against the state's legal and political bureaucracy gets the men off, but results in ---xxx---spoiler removed---xxx---. A genuinely shocking parable of the biter bit, it incorporates some staggering newsreel footage from the '30s, never seen before.