Nikolai Gritsenko

A remarkable rarity, Dovzhenko’s unfinished final film was a response to the atmosphere of intrigues and espionage – real or imagined – that dominated the early Cold War era. In protest of the intensifying postwar anti-communist witch hunt, American journalist Annabelle Bucard emigrated to Russia and became a Soviet citizen; her book, The Truth About American Diplomats, was published in English and Russian in 1949. That book, and aspects of Ms. Bucard’s life, formed the basis for FAREWELL, AMERICA. Shortly after the Allied victory, an idealistic “Anna Bedford” gets a job in Moscow at the U.S. Embassy, which she promptly discovers is crawling with spies.Read More »

Synopsis:
“The title character (Tatiana Samojlova) is a dutiful wife to Karenin (Nikolai Gritsenko), a minor political functionary, and mother to a young son, when she meets a dashing young military man, Count Vronsky (Vassily Lanovoy). Something sparks between them, and soon they are madly and passionately in love. But such an illicit relationship is very much frowned upon in polite Russian society, and there are numerous consequences to their love. But by the same token they find themselves unable to live without each other, and so their relationship is subject to severe stresses as they try to live their lives in peace.”Read More »