PRESENTED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE ANU LGBTIQA+ ALUMNI NETWORK

Screening in celebration of this year’s Wear It Purple Day for LGBTIQA+ awareness, Firebird is a passionate love story set against the backdrop of a Soviet Air Force base in Estonia during Communist rule in the late 1970s.

Sergey (Tom Prior) is a soulful, young soldier who dreams of becoming an actor in Moscow, who counts down the days until his military service ends. His life is turned upside down when he meets Roman (Oleg Zagorodnii), an enigmatic ace fighter pilot newly assigned to the base. Driven by an undeniable attraction, Sergey and Roman navigate the precarious line between love and friendship at a time when homosexuality in the Soviet armed forces was met with the harshest of punishments. As their relationship deepens, the men risk it all – their freedom and their lives – to be together.