The action takes place during World War II and the German occupation of Ukraine, in a small village. During clashes on the road, the village boy Vasyl, one of the local partisans, killing a German officer. The occupants take hostages and vow to execut all village inhabitants will beed, including old people and children, if the perpetrator is not found and delivered to them. The problem of choice faces the fellow villagers and Vasyl himself.
The film is striking it its black-and-white imagery unfolding not so much against, as together with, the emotionally intense music by Pederecki, Bakki, and Skoryk. Conscience is absolutely free of Soviet ideological clichés obligatory for the WWII genr, and was immediately banned by the Soviet censorship. It was first restored in 1989 by the Dovzhenko Studio and in 2011 by the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture.
