When young Nikita reports for compulsory military duty in 2020, he enters a generations-old tradition that hides a deadly secret in post-Soviet Belarus: dedovshchina, the practice of violent abuse and bullying that supposedly turns boys into men but which has instead created generational trauma deeply embedded in the country’s present-day culture and identity.

Svetlana lives with this traumatic reality every day – her son was found hanged on base two years earlier as a result of dedovshchina, and a veil of secrecy continues to conceal his murderers.

The stories of Nikita and Svetlana also frame the rage in the streets against the state-led violence, rooted in dedovshchina, that has become the very mechanism of fear the government uses to control its populace.