The eponymous gentle creature (Makovtseva) lives alone on the outskirts of a village in Russia, her husband incarcerated in a Siberian prison. One day she receives a parcel she sent him bafflingly marked ‘Return to sender’. Seeking an explanation, she travels to the prison where she encounters the crooks, liars and camp followers who live outside its gates, and where she hopes to find amongst them some clue to her husband’s fate. Based on a short story by Dostoyevsky A Gentle Creature is a powerful and brilliant satire of Russia and its history.