Oscar is the story of the life of the famous artist Oscar Rabin against the background of three decades of Soviet history; it is a story about a successful experience of standing up against a regime with the help of paint and brushes. It is the story of non-violent resistance against evil, of the boundaries of compromise, about how people try to maintain their inner freedom when they are living in a country that is not very free. The film uses many unique newsreels and other archival materials being shown for the first time. Along with Oscar Rabin, featured in the fim are Lyudmila Ulitskaya, Vladimir Sorokin, Evgeny Kisin, Boris Akunin, Maya Turovskaya, Vladimir Paperny, Erik Bulatov, Oleg Tselkov, Vitaly Komar, Vyacheslav Ivanov, Mihail Chemiakin, Igor Guberman, Donald Rayfield, and Adam Michnik.

Who is the new Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, or Gogol waiting to be discovered by the English-speaking world? Hosted by actor, author, and activist Stephen Fry, focuses on six authors whose vibrant, idiosyncratic work continues to gain traction with a global audience: Dmitry Bykov, Mariam Petrosyan, Zakhar Prilepin, Anna Starobinets, Vladimir Sorokin, and Lyudmila Ultiskaya. With contributions from their literary critics, publishers, and peers, the film features extensive interviews with each author.