The documentary chronicles the massacre of thousands of Jews in Babi Yar in Ukraine. Emerging Nazi troops in the Soviet Union occupied Kyiv in September 1941. SS troops and local collaborators killed thousands of Jews in the Babi Yar ravine, northwest of Kiev. According to Nazi reports, 33,771 Jews were killed in the mass grave of Babi Yar. The documentary chronicles the events before the massacre as well as the Nazi occupation of Ukraine with archival footage, dramatized dialogues and a remarkable soundscape.

Ukrainian Sergei Loznitsa (1964) grew up in Kyiv, where he studied applied mathematics. He then worked as a researcher at the Kiev Institute of Cybernetics, specializing in artificial intelligence. He then studied cinema at the Russian National Film Institute. He has directed 25 world-renowned documentaries and 4 fiction films, which were presented at the Cannes Film Festival (My joy in 2010, In the mist in 2012, A gentle woman in 2017, Donbass in 2018).