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A portrayal of Maria Judina, one of the greatest Russian pianists of the 20th Century, fearless as a woman and an intellectual. A portrayal backed up by rigorous historical documentation and engaging narrative freedom. The story of an artist during the darkest period of Stalinism, the clash with a dictator who, although opposing her for her religious beliefs, nevertheless appreciated her art.

Little is known in the West about the life of the great Russian pianist Maria Judina (1899-1970), or her rebellion against the Soviet regime because of her devout Catholicism and great intellectual freedom as an artist. An extraordinary figure whose encounters with poets, musicians and writers (from Gorky to Mandelstam, from Akhmatova to Pasternak, to Bakhtin, Florensky and Shostakovich), made an impact on the cultural life of the time. There’s the legendary episode in which Stalin listens to Mozart’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 23 at night and is so moved by Judina’s performance that the following day he demands to have the record, creating terror and confusion at the radio station because the concert was not recorded. Consequently, the musicians, the pianist and the conductor have to be summoned back in order to “create” in just a few hours, a fake first performance to send to Stalin. He would listen to this record until the day of his death.