Firebird is a 2021 romantic war film directed by Peeter Rebane, based on the memoir The Story of Roman by Sergey Fetisov. Set in the Soviet Air Force during the Cold War, the film tells a true story of passionate but forbidden same-sex love between a private and a fighter pilot.

@Firebird - 2021 | Theaters, DVD, Blu-Ray 📺.

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Sergey, a young private struggling in the army, counts the days until the end of his military service. His life is turned upside down when Roman, an intrepid fighter pilot, arrives at base.

Affairs at the base have formed a beautiful friendship between Sergey, Roman and Luisa - the female secretary of the base commander.

Driven by curiosity and lust, Sergey and Roman gradually teeter on the edge between love and friendship. Later, they fell in love passionately.

Their love is subject to stalking, and intimidation by the commanding officer in the base. According to the regulations at that time, soldiers who are found to have same-sex relationships would be sentenced to 5 years in prison. This troubles and scares Roman because he wants to pursue his professional military career.

After being discharged from the army, Sergey pursues an artistic path. FireBird is the name of a ballet that Roman took Sergey to see for the first time in his life, which sparks his passion for art.

Roman is married to Luisa but still secretly has feelings for Sergey. Both Roman and Sergey are tormented by their hopeless love affair, until their love triangle is painfully decided by fate.

Aside from Tom Prior (as Sergey) who is British, most of the main actors in the film are of Eastern European origin such as Ukrainian Oleg Zagorodnii (as Roman), Russian Diana Pozharskaya (as Luisa), Estonian Margus Pragel (as Major Zverev).

Firebird was screened at many LGBTIQ+ Film Festivals in London, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Hong Kong… and at several International Film Festivals.

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, Firebird has 88% positive reviews, with an average review score of 7.70. The rating on IMDb is 7.5/10.