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Mikhail Segal's period wartime drama Franz & Polina hearkens back to 1943 Byelorussia, amid the Nazis' plans to strategically wipe out the Slavic race. As Hitler's Secret Service carries out its mission to this end, one of its detachments arrives in a small Byelorussian village and reaches the brink of peasant annihilation. At the last minute, before any casualties can occur, the soldiers receive instruction from the high command to suspend the mission, and decide instead to exploit the local residents as their servants. Complications arise when the two young people of the title - one an SS soldier and the other a Byelorussian peasant - find themselves falling deeply and helplessly in love with one another. Franz must grapple with his own courage to confess his feelings to Polina before time runs out, and the couple must decide - together - whether to place higher priority on the bonds of love or a raw survival instinct that could easily tear them apart.