White Nights

An expatriate Russian dancer is on a plane forced to land on Soviet territory. He is taken to an apartment…

• Director: Taylor Hackford
• Genre:Drama
• Runtime:137 minutes

Cast

Mikhail Baryshnikov: Nikolai ‘Kolya’ Rodchenko
Gregory Hines : Raymond Greenwood
Jerzy Skolimowski: Colonel Chaiko
Helen Mirren : Galina Ivanova
Geraldine Page : Anne Wyatt

Hines plays an African-American tap dancer, Raymond Greenwood, who has defected to the Soviet Union. He encounters and befriends Nikolai ‘Kolya’ Rodchenko, a Soviet ballet dancer played by Baryshnikov, who had previously defected in the other direction. Isabella Rossellini plays Darya, Greenwood’s wife, and Helen Mirren plays Galina Ivanova, a former ballerina who never left the Soviet Union and is an old flame of Rodchenko.

Greenwood and Rodchenko perform a cinematic pas de deux after a plane carrying the latter makes a forced landing in Siberia and he is recognized. Both dancers are brought to Leningrad where the Soviets seek to exploit Rodchenko’s talent. After an initial period of racial and artistic friction, the two dancers (and defectors in opposite directions) become strong friends and Greenwood helps arrange an escape to the American consulate. Read more

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