Summary
The film plunges viewers into the chilling vortex of the Beilis Affair, a notorious 1913 blood libel trial that ripped through the twilight years of Imperial Russia. At its core lies Menahem Mendel Beilis, a Jewish factory foreman in Kyiv, ensnared in a fabricated accusation of ritually murdering a young Christian boy, Andrei Yushchinsky. The narrative meticulously unpacks the state's insidious machinations, revealing how a tragic death was cynically exploited by the Black Hundreds and high-ranking government officials, including the Minister of Justice, to fuel rampant antisemitism and deflect public discontent from the crumbling Tsarist regime. We witness the relentless persecution of Beilis, his agonizing imprisonment, and the desperate struggle of his defense team against overwhelming prejudice and a judicial system weaponized by political expediency. The film unflinchingly exposes the grotesque spectacle of a courtroom transformed into a theater of xenophobia, where pseudoscientific 'experts' and coerced witnesses are paraded to legitimize a predetermined verdict. It’s a harrowing chronicle of a man's fight for his life and dignity against a vast, institutionalized conspiracy, culminating in a verdict that, while acquitting Beilis, leaves an indelible stain on the conscience of a nation teetering on the brink.
