The Long Way Home

The Long Way Home is a feature documentary by Michael Apted about the odyssey of Soviet underground rock hero Boris Grebenshchikov to the West in 1988 to record an album for CBS Records and bring it back home in the early, optimistic days of Glasnost. It was financed by Granada TV and CBS Music Entertainment and finished in 1989. CBS invested in the film to help support Boris's album, Radio Silence which they released in December 1989. Granada was home to Apted's Up films. The Long Way Home was filmed between June and November,1988. It unfolds chronologically, beginning with Boris's first recording session in New York City with producer Dave Stewart, then continuing as Boris's band, Aquarium, arrives in Montreal, where they perform at the Concert for Peace with Crosby, Stills & Nash joining them for one song. After they record a track at Le Studio in Morin Heights, squabbling at times, the film shifts to Leningrad to explore Boris's family life, his relationship with his bandmates, and how Glasnost has triggered new energy and hope. Leaving Aquarium behind, Boris resumes recording at Stewart's Church Studios in London, where Annie Lennox and Chrissie Hynde provide backing vocals and Ray Cooper adds percussion. After a break at a dacha outside Leningrad, where some of Boris's bandmates express skepticism about his new songs and wonder if he will abandon them, Boris hunkers down at Stewart's LA studio to finish recording and mixing. Despite the arrival of Aquarium bassist Sasha Titov, Boris struggles to get what he wants. Stewart wonders if Boris has been in America too long, summarizing his quandary in an impromptu song, “The Ballad of Boris". The film concludes in Leningrad in November, where Stewart and Eurythmics, minus Lennox, rehearse with Aquarium, overcoming language barriers and musical differences to perform two electrifying shows at the Leningrad Sports Complex.