A work in constant progress (and occasional regress).
Release Date:
October 9, 2020
Original Title:
Šuolis
Alternate Titles:
Lēciens
Genres:
Documentary
Production Companies:
Faites un Voeu
LRT
MDR
Moonmakers
VFS Films
WDR/Arte
Production Countries:
France | Germany | Latvia | Lithuania
Ratings / Certifications:
N/A
Runtime: 85
In the Cold War years of the 1970s, an American patrol boat meets a Soviet ship off the east coast of the United States for talks about fishing rights in the Atlantic. In the midst of this, while Russian commanders are aboard the U.S. Coast Guard vessel where the talks are being held, a Lithuanian sailor jumps across the ten feet of icy water separating the boats. Crash-landing on the deck of the American ship, he desperately begs for asylum. Though they try, the Americans ultimately fail to provide protection and the Soviets are allowed to capture him and brutally return him to their vessel. Thus begins a stranger-than-fiction story of imprisonment, discovery, fame, and freedom. Through rare archival footage and a dramatic first-person re-enactment of that fateful day by Simas Kudirka, the would-be defector himself, this tale of one of the biggest Cold War muddles takes us on a journey of uncanny twists of fate, and the emotional sacrifices of becoming a universal symbol of freedom.
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Co-Producer:
Catherine Simeon
Uldis Cekulis
Director:
Giedrė Žickytė
Director of Photography:
Rimvydas Leipus
Valdis Celmiņš
Editor:
Thomas Ernst
Danielius Kokanauskis
Producer:
Giedrė Žickytė
Screenplay:
Giedrė Žickytė
Sound:
Jonas Maksvytis
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