About Shot in stunning black-and-white, HARD TO BE A GOD takes place in the planet of Arkanar, which is in the middle of a period of violence, filth, and crudeness: its own Middle Age. The local population is suffering from a ban issued on anyone who can read and write, and those who resist are brutally punished and killed. Don Rumata (played by Leonid Yarmolnik), the film's main character, is an Earth scientist sent to examine this Earth-like planet. Coming from a culturally advanced world, but here disguised as a noble-born bastard, Don Rumata is rumored by the locals to have a God as one of his ancestors. Rumata does what he can to save the local intelligentsia, but is ultimately forbidden from interfering in the development of Arkanar.(C) Kino Lorber