Letter to Brezhnev – 1985 | 94 mins | Comedy, Drama | Colour

Plot Synopsis

Letter to Brezhnev is an escapist fantasy rooted in realistic observation which is gritty, energetic, and wonderfully funny. Writer Frank Clarke and director Chris Bernard have made a endearing low-budget love affair, similar to that of Bill Forsyth, except tougher, and taking due mileage from the fact that Thatcher’s high-unemployment Liverpool of the 80s is England’s only mythological city. The girls are exuberantly performed in a searingly matter-of-fact fashion by sassy Margi Clarke and Alexandra Pigg.

Teresa (Margi Clarke) and Elaine (Alexandra Pigg) are short-skirted,wisecracking best friends from Kirkby. Teresa works in a frozen-chicken factory and Elaine is unemployed, as are many thousands in the economically depressed area of Liverpool in the 1980s. One night the two optimistically decide to bus into Liverpool for one night on the town. At a local club, Teresa steals a wallet, and the friends head for an upscale disco, The State, where they Russian sailors Peter (Peter Firth) and Sergei (Alfred Molina), in Liverpool for shoreleave.

Using the money she stole, street-smart Teresa rents apair of hotel rooms and drags Sergei into hers. The sweeter, gentler Elaine rediscovers the joys of romance by spending the evening talking to Peter. Both are terminal romantics; and just before Peter is about to board the Soviet ship he proposes marriage to Elaine. Peter returns to Omsk, leaving matters to be fixed by ‘a letter to Brezhnev’.