The Seed of Truth
"They will live as human beings and die as human beings; and in this alone lies man's eternal and bitter victory over all the grandiose and inhuman forces that ever have been or will be"
Vasily Grossman, Life and Fate
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The Seed of Truth is a sponsored project of Film Independent, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
Contributions for the charitable purposes of The Shape of Truth must be made payable to Film Independent and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.
A prominent Soviet-era scientist is arrested for treason and pressured to sign a confession to save his family. The Soviet regime executes him for openly criticizing disinformation and standing up for scientific truth.
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At a science award ceremony in 2020 America, his daughter shares their intertwined story.
BASED ON
A TRUE STORY
The Seed of Truth illustrates the tragedies of Stalin's Soviet regime, ignoring scientific facts leading to the starvation and death of millions of citizens. Outrageously, the regime persecuted over 3,000 biologists who stood for scientific truth.
Your help, support, and donation will be extremely valuable for us to fully realize the film’s vision and mission.
The 2023 Nobel Prize Summit is on Truth, Trust and Hope. Our film aims to combat misinformation and disinformation, and contribute to the global conversation on restoring trust in science. Now is the time to share this emotional story of truth, love, and life, and to honor those who sacrificed for truth and humanity.
The project has received the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Production Award. As filmmakers and citizens, we strive to tell humanist and humanitarian stories that speak to our society. Thank you for taking the time to visit our website.
Stand up for SCIENCE
History A Deadly Mix of Pseudoscience and Political Ideology
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Trofim Lysenko, the director of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union, declared modern genetics to be against Marxist-Leninist principles and thus counter-revolutionary. He denied the existence of genes and DNA—the blueprint of life, and one of the most important discoveries in life sciences and humanity.
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Despite that legitimate scientists lambasted Lysenko’s ignorance, Joseph Stalin approved his work, making his views official doctrine. As a result, Stalin and Lysenko became the culprits of prolonged famine and other deprivations facing Soviet citizens.
At great cost, science became a tool for serving political ideology.
Lysenkoism: the politicization of science and enforcement of pseudo-theory
Inspired by
NIKOLAI VAVILOV
Nikolai Vavilov was a Soviet agronomist, geneticist and botanist who devoted his life to the study and improvement of various cereal crops that could sustain the global population. A good deal of the food we eat is thanks to his contribution.
Over three decades of tireless scientific work, he had traveled to 65 countries, amassing the largest collection in the world of species and strains of cultivated plants and had developed strategies on how to use them for breeding new strains. He collected over 200,000 seeds from around the globe and created the world's largest seed bank. In his research, he had one single objective: to increase agricultural production and to provide more food.
Under Joseph Stalin's orders, Vavilov was arrested for openly criticizing Lysenko.
Vavilov, who dedicated his life to saving Russia from famine and feeding the world, starved to death in a Soviet Gulag.
SYNOPSIS
ACT I
The story begins in 2020, Illinois. Elena, a world-renowned agronomist and geneticist, speaks at the awards ceremony. She introduces her father's deeds in the Soviet Union from her childhood memories - the beginning of her quest for scientific truth.
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