A dazzling novel of cinema, power, and the price of artistic freedom

In Eisen, Guzel Yakhina brings her extraordinary storytelling to the life of Sergei Eisenstein, the visionary filmmaker who revolutionised cinema—and was nearly destroyed by the regime he helped glorify. From the groundbreaking success of Battleship Potemkin to the brutal realities of censorship, exile and compromise under Stalin, Yakhina tells the story of a genius caught between his artistic ambitions and the demands of an authoritarian state.

Moving between Moscow, Berlin, Paris and Mexico, Eisen unfolds in vivid, cinematic episodes inspired by Eisenstein's own theory of montage. As art and politics collide, Yakhina explores the passions, contradictions and private struggles behind a public legend, revealing the human cost of creating great art in a world where freedom is never guaranteed.



"The fictionalised life of a great Soviet-era filmmaker. Yakhina, a screenwriter and student of film as well as a novelist, explores the improbable fortunes of Sergei Eisenstein... A nuanced portrait of the artist."



"A stimulating portrait of a legendary director.



"A bold and original literary portrait of an artist trapped between genius and terror."



"Yakhina writes cinema into prose—Eisen unfolds like a film made of words."



"Not a biography, but an act of artistic resurrection."