AllMovie

Ben Kingsley, Sally Field, and Ed Asner lend their voices to this documentary about Russian artist and art collector Igor Savitsky, who risked his life and livelihood to rescue 40,000 paintings that were banned under Soviet rule. Savitsky barely had a penny to his name when he started collecting the works of Russian artists who were shot or shopped off to gulags for creating works that didn't toe the party line. Incredibly, he raised the funds to rescue the remarkable paintings by borrowing from the very same groups that had worked to get them banned in the first place. In the course of his journeys, Savitsky discovered that a group of obscure artists had settled in Uzbekistan in the wake of the 1917 Russian Revolution. Intrigued by the Islamic culture they encountered there, the artists began infusing their European modernist works with Eastern traditionalism, and gave birth to a movement that was truly unique. Fully realizing that he could be dubbed an "enemy of the people" for his efforts in preserving this art, Savitsky selflessly dedicated his life to ensuring that these works would not be lost to the ravages of time or the legacy of tyranny.