Brief an Breshnew

Taking place during the 'Cold War' the film describes two people falling in love during a time of massive unemployment and recession in the U.K. The main characters are Elaine and Theresa, two friends who are very different from each other. Elaine is unemployed, bored of her own life and the people around her. Theresa works in a chicken factory and is the opposite of Elaine – she tries to enjoy life, in her own way which involves drinking, having casual sex and taking opportunities when they arise. Elaine and Theresa meet two Russian sailors in a nightclub and Elaine falls in love with the shyer one – Peter – and after he gets back on his ship she decides to go to Communist Russia to be with him, but it doesn't seem so easy to do. In the 1980's there was a big difference between the countries on either side of the 'Iron Curtain'. There was seen to be more freedom in the Capitalist West than the Communist East.

The film shows the negative side of the lives of independent, 'free' women in the West; it tries to show that life in the West at that time was not what we are led to believe. Although we do not see life in Russia in the film, we are told there is work for all people there. For Elaine, Russia represents a happy life, a new start and hope for a job and a family. The film also shows the attitudes of the British to Russia, where they say there is no freedom and that Elaine may lose the opportunity to come back to her country. In my opinion, this film is propaganda for Russia as the director shows us the way that the British government constructed their own propaganda against Russia. Throughout the film the director shows us why life in the U.K. is no better, or may be worse, than life in Russia. We don't know if Elaine will be happier in Russia but she will have followed her heart and dreams.

Frank Clarke is my favourite writer of British Films (Letter To Brezhnev, Blonde Fist, and I have just found out The Fruit Machine.) The film is set in Modern day working class Liverpool, where two friends Teresa (the one and only Margi Clarke) and Elaine (Alexandra Pigg) hit the town one night and meet two Russian Sailors. Elaine falls head over heels in love and when the sailors set sail Elaine writes a letter to president Brezhnev of Russia regarding her love and the need to see him again as she believes she is being prevented by the British authorities. It is not however a soppy love story, fast paced and again quite true to working class life in Britain in the 1980's. A Film Four production again, who have made the best low budget British Films of the last twenty years.

Ah, but if only it were realistic. Because if anyone knows anything about the way the Soviet Union dealt with sailors in those days, the regime would never have let these two guys go off by themselves on shore, not even for a short while. I hope no one has to explain to you why. And even if this sweet young thing did get her chance to get a letter through to Brezhnev, he would surely be wondering how this sailor was able to free himself long enough to get into this situation in the first place, and I can tell you he wouldn't like it — even if the propaganda value might otherwise be useful.

But of course, romantic notions of life in the Soviet Union were not exactly rare at the time — especially, perhaps, in a very depressed place like Liverpool in the '80's. I wished Elaine luck, but it's kind of like watching one of those old Science Fiction movies and hoping the aliens and the earthlings can learn how to get along, because you know that in real life you don't really have to or get to.

set in 80`s Liverpool...the best love story since Romeo and Juliet,far from being sloppy,more in-your-face,honest truth from two Scouse lasses on a night out...they run into a couple of Russian sailors on a one-night pass and two fall in love during that night.. but he has to leave on his ship the next day....she encounter red tape by the mile in her attempts to visit him in Russia...so she goes straight to Mr.Brezhnev himself for help......hilarious,gritty,sad...and you will be smiling by the time the credits roll....

Atmospheric, un-slick, and utterly unique, Letter to Brezhnev captures a slice of the 1980s which seems all the more extraordinary in 1999. Graced by realistic acting, deft camera work, and a superb soundtrack, one is successfully transformed to a period and a place, in this case wonderfully dreary Liverpool in the early 80s - New Wave music and the Cold War are in full swing. Such a movie is hip today but rarely achieved. The story may seem a little far-fetched - Liverpool girl (Pigg) gets Russian guy (Firth) with a little help from no less than the Soviet Premier - but some of us who grew up in the 80s like to think that it could. The 80s were like that. Now, we just have awful, cynical, formulaic pap - Reality Bites and Boys on the Side...whine, whine, whine. Why can't more movies like Letter to Brezhnev be made?