Zerograd

Set in the late Soviet era, a period of stagnation and creeping change. Bureaucratic rituals, opaque investigations, and surveillance shape everyday life. The atmosphere breeds paranoia and a sense that truth can be manipulated.

A nameless industrial town in the Soviet Union centers on a factory, a restaurant, and a hidden history museum. The place feels claustrophobic and performative, where official life masks deeper ambitions and violence. Its streets connect a cast of officials, workers, and dreamers through intrigue and mystery.

🗂️ Bureaucracy

The missing pass, sold-out trains, and opaque investigations illustrate how the system constrains individuals. Characters improvise around rules, exposing how paperwork and procedure can mask power dynamics. The town's inertia becomes a character in itself, driving fear and fatalism.

🧬 Identity

Varakin learns his true origins, including a revelation about his father and name, highlighting the fragility of self-definition. The town's figures perform roles that blur personal and public identities. The search for who he really is collides with a landscape that offers few solid anchors.

🎭 Culture

A diverse cultural stage unfolds: rock'n'roll clubs, a local museum, and artifacts spanning civilizations. These rituals offer a sense of freedom and community, even as they are entangled with power and politics. The contrasts between art, heritage, and state control reveal the tension at the heart of the town.

🧭 Escape

Varakin's attempted departure, sold trains, and the option to take a river journey underscore the universal urge to escape stagnation. The search for a way out is fraught with obstacles and indifference. The possibility of escape acts as a lingering lure throughout the narrative.

💀 Mortality

Death threads through the story: a cook's suicide and a later revealed murder expose a darker underbelly beneath everyday civility. The town's violence suggests that fate is as present as choice, often tied to places like the dying oak.