at 123 Movies. Pablo Picasso, Mstislav Rostropovich, Yasha Heifetz: all of them along with a series of outstanding figures of the 20th Century were captured for the film by a man who was an outstanding person himself. Leonid Kogan was a great violinist. He was perhaps one of the hundred in the USSR who had a chance to experience the taste of freedom. This is a true story about the price of freedom for an artist. When the government suspected his intention to emigrate, they strictly limited his concerts abroad and banned him from leaving the country. A year later the violinist died because freedom was his oxygen.