Tortured by his childhood memories, Sasha returns to his town of birth to rid himself of his nightmares and break the shackles of the past. But no one in the city is waiting for him. He’s viciously beaten over his high school sweetheart by a local thug. Sasha does not have the habit of offering his right cheek when he’s hit on the left. He cripples his assailant and finds himself on the run from gangsters and the police. What they don’t know is that Sasha possesses a supernatural ability that enables him to destroy anything in his path. Trouble is in stall for anyone who dares to cross him. But then Sasha meets Katya. She loves him and is not afraid of his special powers. Will Sasha be able to protect his love in a world that wants him dead?

THE SWORD BEARER is a gripping fantastic drama about how society has made a monster out of a man and how that man is transformed by love. Director Philip Yankovsky explores what it would look like if an actual person in the real world were to have super powers. THE SWORD BEARER is a highly impressionistic film with heavy noir overtones, lacing its stunning photography with bursts of shockingly graphic violence all while focusing purely and entirely on the emotional journey of its protagonist. It’s all about character and action, laced with tragedy. And that it works incredibly well, is due to Yankovsky's skills behind the camera and the magnetic performances of Artyom Tkachenko and Chulpan Khamatova (LUNA PAPA, TUVALU, GOODBYE LENIN) as the doomed lovers Sasha and Katya.