Light from the East

People like Amy Grappell should be highly honored for showing those parts of the world that we do not know, despite news networks insisting otherwise.

Generates genuine suspense as it follows a group of American actors in the former Soviet Union during a fateful period of the Perestroika era.

Of historical interest, although a more experienced filmmaker would have made more of the sudden rush of events - and avoided the temptation to put himself or herself into nearly every frame, as Grappell does.

Mostly the film is a testament to the egomania of the theater: despite what's going on around them, these actors can't see just how minor their modest project really is.

Grappell implicitly uses the juxtaposition with the martyred Kurbas to gauge her commitment to her own art. Light From the East drinks freely from the triumphalist cup of the glasnost era.