White nights
(DVD Video) 

Originally produced as a motion picture in 1985.

Special features: Audio commentary with Taylor Hackford [optional]; Pas de deux: Making 'White nights' [featurette] (21 min.); Previews (22 min.).

Director of photography, David Watkin ; production designer, Philip Harrison ; editors, Fredric Steinkamp, William Steinkamp ; choreographer, Twyla Tharp ; music score, Michel Colombier ; "Le jeune homme et la mort" choreographed by Roland Petit ; title song written and performed by Lionel Richie ; love theme performed by Phil Collins and Marilyn Martin.

Mikhail Baryshnikov, Gregory Hines, Jerzy Skolimowski, Helen Mirren, Geraldine Page, Isabella Rossellini, John Glover.

Nikolai Rodchenko, a Russian ballet dancer who defected from the Soviet Union years ago, finds himself back in the motherland--trapped--thanks to an emergency airplane landing. The Soviets do not imprison him, however; they hope to score a propaganda victory by 'persuading' him to become Russian again. That is why he is sent to Siberia, to Raymond Greenwood and his Russian wife Darya. Greenwood is an American tap dancer who defected to Russia in opposition to the Vietnam War. Nikolai makes Raymond realize how limited his life is in the USSR, and together they hatch a plan to evade their KGB minders, escape to the American Embassy and eventually the US.

MPAA rating: PG-13.

DVD; Region 1, NTSC; 5.1 Dolby Digital surround; anamorphic widescreen presentation, 1.85:1 aspect ratio.

In English or dubbed Portuguese with optional subtitles in English, French, Korean, Portuguese, or Spanish; closed-captioned.

Winner, 1986 Academy Award Best Music, Original Song--Lionel Richie.