Perestroika

Synopsis: Moscow. 1992. Astrophysicist Sasha Greenberg, (Sam Robards,) returns after emigrating to the US 17 years earlier. Formerly branded a traitor by the government, he is now seen as a hero. The period of "Perestroika"(restructuring) has turned everything upside down. Old friends who had no choice but to denounce him now welcome him with open arms. Painful memories of anti Semitism return to haunt him. A former colleague and lover introduces him to a fiery young girl who may be his daughter. The entire society is in upheaval. Vodka is rationed. Old people can barely feed themselves. Films of polluted seas, rivers on fire, and dying forests, are seeing the light of day for the first time. People are saying things in public that formerly would have sent them to prison. Many expect Civil War. At the same time a new breed of entrepreneurs are born. In the midst of all this turmoil Sasha is expected to deliver a theory that makes sense of our universe. His wily but supportive mentor, Gross, (F. Murray Abraham) counsels Sasha to continue along his path, to ride out his personal and professional problems.

Perestroika is the latest narrative feature from storied writer/director Slava Tsukerman, the director of the cult classic "Liquid Sky," and the critically acclaimed documentary, Stalin's Wife. Perestroika is a fictional look at a period that addresses much that is going on right now. But it is also a semi autobiographical recounting of Mr. Tsukerman's own return to Russia during Perestroika. In his youth Tsukerman was among the first Jews to be admitted to the Moscow Film School. Almost twenty years before Russia's "restructuring" he managed to emigrate to Israel, and then the US, where he made a huge splash with Liquid Sky. In writing Perestroika he called on much of his own experience.   Source: Official Site