This biographical documentary follows Yuri Ivanovich Manin’s stellar career in the ‘golden years’ of Moscow mathematics during the 1960s and 1970s. He was one of the key players in the development of algebraic geometry, at a time when a constellation of brilliant minds — of which Manin's was but one — were conducting outstanding mathematical research. This happened under the strictures of a closed society that put severe restrictions on academics (despite diplomatic détente) right up to the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989. Yuri Manin’s brilliance, and his unswerving integrity, helped him evade the pitfalls of Soviet-era academia. His full cooperation with this documentary allows the world a fascinating glimpse into an era of scientific enquiry that is as celebrated as it is underreported. It is about the exceptional life of a mathematician in unusual times, whose passion for his subject, as well as his breadth of thinking, allowed him to forge his own freedom. Internationally recognized for his contribution to mathematics, Manin’s many prizes include the Lenin Prize in 1967, the Brouwer Gold Medal in 1984 and the Georg Cantor Medal in 2002.