The Russia House (1990)

Plot of The Russia House: A Russian woman, Katya approaches a British audio book salesman at a low level fair in Moscow, with a manuscript which she wants to give to Barley Scott Blair, the principle of a small publishing house and a Russiafile. He has visited writer’s retreats in the country and has come to the attention of Yakov Savelayev, “Dante”, the likely author of the manuscript. The manuscript, in the hands of MI6 and the CIA turns out to be a full exposition of the Russian missile capability, apparently in disarray. But is it the truth? Barley Blair, despite his lack of experience is tasked with contacting Katya to find the source of the material, and to find out whether it is the truth. He therefore returns to Russia and over time gets to know and falls for Katya. But as he gets closer to the source MI6 begin to think that everything is compromised and that both Katya and Blair are at risk. What to do?

Content: There is sex, but the camera discreetly pans away and leaves them to it, so no nudity. A lot of drinking. Barley seems unhappy unless he has a glass of something in his hand. A lot of scenes in both Moscow and Leningrad (now St Petersburg again). We are kept up to date as the spooks (in the Russia House) analyse the recordings made in Russia by Barley. At one point there is a gathering of the Brits, the Americans and Barley in a lakeside residence approached by float plane, where Barley submits to a lie detector test.

A View: This film probably did not make any money, and was variously reviewed by the critics at the time. Leningrad seemed sort of familiar I was there in the 1960s. I thought that it might have been Sean Connery’s best ever role, and Michelle Pfeiffer was complemented for her Russian accent. It was great to see a film which held together from beginning to end, with no car chases or gunfire but still a lot of underlying tension. I loved the fact that the Americans did not like the manuscript because it would mean that there was no longer an arms race, and so many people would stop making a lot of money. So well worth a couple of hours of your time in my view.

Fun Fact: The cast were catered with food imported from the West, and Russian would come along just to see it being eaten.