Aleksei Arbuzov, a classical Russian playwright of the Soviet era, unveils a unique glimpse of life behind theiron curtain in The Promise. At the edge of starvation, despair, and death, three youths meet in the besieged Leningrad of 1942 and survive only by mutual sacrifice and the bonds they form under peril. Lilia Levitina directs a cast that includes Jedediah Baker, Walter Belenky, and Sara Petersen.