Trans-Atlantic Unions

[Menydh]

Trans-Atlantic Unions

The Moscow Times
June 10, 2005

In a new documentary, Russian women vent about their American husbands.

When Oksana's American fiance met her at the airport, he seemed different, not quiet and polite as he had been in Russia. "I'm in my own country, and no one can tell me that I'm shit," he told her. Over the next two weeks, Oksana noticed that he didn't wash once and that his nails were long and dirty.

This unfortunate mail-order bride appears in "Flyover Country," a new documentary about Russian women who marry American men. The hour-long film, currently playing at Fitil, features interviews with women in the United States -- and their husbands -- as well as with women in Russia who are seeking partners through international dating agencies.

The film's director, Angelina Fomina, lived for 10 years in the United States -- but not as a bride. In 1993, she left her native city of Rostov-on-Don to study film in New York because she "didn't see any opportunities" at home, she said Wednesday. Now living in Moscow, the 29-year-old director heads a production company called Attitude Films and made the documentary with sponsorship from a Rostov-on-Don tobacco company.

Most of the film's participants speak English to the camera, and the captions explaining each woman's story are also written in English. "I made the film for the American audience primarily," Fomina said. "I didn't realize the film could be interesting here because I thought it was more informative for non-Russian audiences."

So far, the documentary has been shown only in Moscow. It will play at Fitil until Thursday, and then it will be screened at B2 nightclub on June 17 and 24. But the director said that she has signed a deal with Morgan Creek International, a film distributor based in the United States, for "world distribution." She also hopes to show the film on Russian television.

The film is framed by the story of Chip and Yulia, a couple who met through a dating agency in Tver and are now preparing to leave for the States. Yulia wasn't actually looking for a husband -- she was translating for Chip, who was looking for a Russian bride after two failed marriages. We see the couple driving to Sheremetyevo airport and Yulia saying goodbye to her family.

"They're still married and I think they're very much okay," Fomina said. "Unfortunately, I haven't followed them closely, but I know they are living there, and she's studying somewhere."

Things didn't work out so well for Oksana. A nurse in Rostov-on-Don, she met her fiance through a newspaper ad and began corresponding with him. "There were such promises, such plans," she recalls in the film. But when she got to the United States, she found herself married to "an angry, argumentative" man, who was abusive and terrified her 5-year-old daughter.

Oksana finally found the courage to leave. After living in shelters, she was given a government-subsidized apartment and works in "random jobs" to support her daughter, who also appears in the film. Now a teenager, the girl sees no prospects in the depressed town of Flint, Michigan, but would struggle in Russia since she cannot read or write the language. Oksana's ex-husband, who is not shown in the film, is now married to another Russian woman.

Many participants focus on cultural differences. Russians are "open" and "warm," while in the United States "there is a distance between friends," complains Tanya, who has divorced her husband and lives in Miami. "American men ... always ask if they can kiss you," says Yulia, the wife of a Los Angeles gallery owner. She admits, "I haven't found what I thought I would find."

The director insisted that her documentary doesn't come to any conclusions. "I don't send the message that it's better here or there," she said. "The film ends with a kind of question mark."


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