Best movies like The Defection of Simas Kudirka

A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like The Defection of Simas Kudirka Starring Alan Arkin, Richard Jordan, Donald Pleasence, George Dzundza, and more. If you liked The Defection of Simas Kudirka then you may also like: The White Crow, Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania, The Unsound, The Hunt for Red October, The Molly Maguires and many more popular movies featured on this list. You can further filter the list even more or get a random selection from the list of similar movies, to make your selection even easier.

Based on the true story of the attempted defection in 1970 by a Lithuanian seaman seeking political asylum in the United States. Kudirka was denied asylum and returned to the Soviets, charged with treason, and sentenced to ten years of hard labor. It was later discovered and verified that his mother had been born in Brooklyn and gone to Lithuania at a young age, which meant she was a U. S. citizen. As a result, Kudirka was declared a U. S. citizen and in 1974 released by the Soviets.

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The White Crow

The story of Rudolf Nureyev, whose escape to the West stunned the world at the height of the Cold War. With his magnetic presence, Nureyev emerged as ballet’s most famous star, a wild and beautiful dancer limited by the world of 1950s Leningrad. His flirtation with Western artists and ideas led him into a high-stakes game of cat and mouse with the KGB.

Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania

A 1971–72 documentary film by Jonas Mekas. It revolves around Mekas' trip back to Semeniškiai, the village of his birth.

The Unsound

A psychiatrist returns to the insane asylum where her mother once worked and is now a patient, hoping to quell a bloody wave of horror that’s been unleashed. As she descends down the rabbit hole and discovers hard truths about her own past, she comes to understand the hospital is hiding secrets of its own, and that perhaps she and her mother have more in common than she realized.

The Hunt for Red October

A new technologically-superior Soviet nuclear sub, the Red October, is heading for the U.S. coast under the command of Captain Marko Ramius. The American government thinks Ramius is planning to attack. A lone CIA analyst has a different idea: he thinks Ramius is planning to defect, but he has only a few hours to find him and prove it - because the entire Russian naval and air commands are trying to find him, too. The hunt is on!

The Molly Maguires

Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, 1876. A secret society of Irish coal miners, bond by a sacred oath, put pressure on the greedy and ruthless company they work for by sabotaging mining facilities in the hope of improving their working conditions and the lives of their families.

The Executioner

A British intelligence agent must track down a fellow spy suspected of being a double agent.

The Experts

Travis and Wendell are two down-on-their-luck New Yorkers who think they're relocating to a small town in Nebraska to open a nightclub. What they don't know is they have actually been abducted by a KGB operative and flown to the Soviet Union, where they'll unwittingly serve as "experts" on all things cool in America. The town, created expressly for KGB spies-in-training is meant to serve as a training ground for Soviet agents. What can these two hapless Americans possibly teach the Soviet spies and will they ever learn they are not actually in Nebraska?

The Flamingo Kid

Brooklyn teenager Jeffrey Willis, thoroughly unhappy with his modest homestead, embraces the other-world aspects of his summer job at the posh Flamingo Club. He spurns his father in favor of the patronage of smooth-talking Phil Brody and is seduced by the ample bikini charms of club member Carla Samson. But thanks to a couple of late-summer hard lessons, the teen eventually realizes that family should always come first.

Russian Roulette

An RCMP officer is ordered to discreetly take a Russian immigrant into custody in advance of a state visit by the Soviet premier. When the prisoner is kidnapped, the officer is drawn into a complicated assassination scheme.

Last Exit to Brooklyn

A gallery of characters in Brooklyn in the 1950s are crushed by their surroundings and selves: a union strike leader discovers he is gay; a prostitute falls in love with one of her clients; a family cannot cope with the fact that their daughter is illegitimately pregnant.

The Lords of Flatbush

Set in 1958, the coming of age story follows four lower middle-class Brooklyn teenagers known as The Lords of Flatbush. The Lords chase girls, steal cars, shoot pool, get into street fights, and hang out at a local malt shop.

The Proud Valley

In a Welsh coal mining valley, a young man with a beautiful singing voice is called upon to make the ultimate sacrifice when a pit disaster threatens.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

The story of a family living in a New York City slum in 1912, headed by a loving but alcoholic father and a strong-willed mother.

Born American

A trio of American students vacationing in Finland cross the border into the USSR and are soon imprisoned following a skirmish with Soviet soldiers.

S*P*Y*S

Two CIA bunglers (Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould) botch a Soviet defection, then both sides mark them for termination.

The Spy Who Went Into the Cold

A documentary about Kim Philby, a British member of MI6 who was in reality a spy and defected to the U.S.S.R.

An Englishman Abroad

Actress Coral Browne travels to Moscow, and meets a mysterious Englishman. Turns out he's the notorious spy, Guy Burgess. Based on a true story, with Ms. Browne playing herself.

The Ballad of Ramblin' Jack

With the help of her mother, family, friends, and fellow musicians, Aiyana Elliott reaches for her father, legendary cowboy troubadour, Ramblin' Jack Elliott. She explores who he is and how he got there, working back and forth between archival and contemporary footage. Born in 1932 in Brooklyn, busking through the South and West in the early 50s, a year with Woody Guthrie, six years flatpicking in Europe, a triumphant return to Greenwich Village in the early 60s, mentoring Bob Dylan, then life on the road, from gig to gig, singing and telling stories. A Grammy and the National Medal of Arts await Jack near the end of a long trail. What will Aiyana find for herself?

The Red Dance

Tasia (Dolores del Río), a beautiful dancer lower class of Russia, falls heir to the throne Prince, Grand Duke Eugene (Charles Farrell), but only admired from a distance. At the outbreak of the Russian Revolution, the Duke falls in captivity and this allows Tasia be near him.

Meant to Be

When 20-year old Nathan loses his career and his girlfriend, he questions his purpose in life. Compounding his struggle, Nathan grew up in a foster home and never met his birth mother. He sets out on a quest to find his mother and somehow come to terms with her rejection of him. His journey begins by flying to the city where he was born. Upon his arrival, Nathan checks into a hotel and meets Mave the hotel's housekeeper. Encouraged by Mave's wisdom and the help of hotel guest Shelly, Nathan finds the address of his mother, Linda. Linda is a social worker who agonizes over the decision she made with Nathan 20 years ago. In an effort to admonish the guilt of giving up her son, Linda is caught up in the life of a teenage mother-to-be, Tori, who is conflicted by the decision to abort her baby. When Nathan gathers the courage to meet his mother, he uncovers a terrible secret that totally redefines what was meant to be for his life.

Tropic of Cancer

Expat American writer Henry Miller hustles his way through Paris in a series of amorous encounters while trying to find his literary voice.

Frightmare

In 1957, Dorothy and Edmund Yates were committed to an institution for the criminally insane, she for acts of murder and cannibalism and he for covering up her crimes. Fifteen years later, they are pronounced fit for society and released. However, in Dorothy's case the doctors may have jumped the gun a bit. Edmund and eldest daughter, Jackie, try to discover just how far Mother's bloodlust has taken her. Meanwhile, youngest daughter Debbie begins to explore the crazy roots of her family tree as fully as possible.

The Cross and the Switchblade

A film adaptation of a book written in 1963. It tells the true story of Wilkerson's first five years in New York City, where he ministered to disillusioned youth, encouraging them to turn away from the drugs and gang violence they were involved with.

Tillie's Tomato Surprise

Tillie Todd gives her rich Aunt Sally a dime-store tomato pincushion for her birthday, claiming that it is the product of her own hard labor. However, Cousin Percy, also competing for Sally's favor, snidely exposes the deception. While testing his latest invention, Tillie's paramour, The Bat, makes a crash landing at Aunt Sally's birthday celebration. Inspired, eccentric Sally takes to the air herself, but after several days' absence she is declared dead. Aunt Sally bequeaths Tillie the tomato pincushion, giving most of the estate to her pet monkey, Jim, and after Jim's death, to Percy. Wanting to speed up his inheritance, Percy kidnaps Jim and connives to frame Tillie for his apparent death. The police relentlessly pursue Tillie until Aunt Sally finally returns. Disgusted at her inability to rid herself of the ugly pincushion, which Percy nastily keeps returning to her, Tillie rips it apart with her teeth, only to discover that it is filled with 10,000 dollar bills.

America Is Hard to See

The tumultuous year of 1968 and the candidacy of Eugene McCarthy for the U.S. Presidency, culminating in the Democratic convention in Chicago.

The Migrants

A look at the lives of migratory farm workers, focusing on one family.

The Last Angry Man

In the midst of the Depression, a crotchety doctor, whose practice is in the Brooklyn slums, takes an interest in a local teenager, whose hostility and erratic behavior the doctor believes is due to more than just his environment.

Forest of the Gods

The story about one man - an artist and an intellectual - who was imprisoned by two brutal regimes, the Nazis and the Soviets. 'The Professor' is a man who lives by his own personal version of the Ten Commandments. After miraculously surviving imprisonment in a Nazi concentration camp through a bit of ironic fate, he writes a memoir of his life, which becomes the target of the Soviet censors. The so-called "freedom" of Communism becomes just as oppressive as the German concentration camp.

Orderers

A fact-based account of ordinary citizens who found themselves arrested and imprisoned without charge for weeks during the October Crisis in 1970 Quebec.

Barbra Streisand: Back to Brooklyn

Barbra Streisand was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY. Still in her teens, she left home to pursue her dreams of becoming an actress. She went on to conquer the worlds of stage, screen, and music, winning the Tony Award, multiple Oscars, Emmys, and selling out concerts around the world. She's the most successful female recording artist in popular music history and the only singer to have a number-one album in five consecutive decades. This concert video, recorded on October 11th & 13th, 2012, captures Barbra's triumphant return to her hometown. With special guest Chris Botti and a thrilling duet with her son, Jason Gould, Barbra achieves yet another career milestone, proving along the way that you can take the girl out of Brooklyn, but you can't take Brooklyn out of the girl!

The Stranger Within

Who is the father of Ann Collins’ baby? Her husband had a vasectomy years ago. And Ann hasn’t been with another man. Even more mysterious: as the baby grows inside her, Ann begins to change. She is beset by strange illnesses, pours tablespoons of salt on her food, turns the thermostat to 50 degrees, speed-reads academic tomes. But much bigger shocks are yet to come. Barbara Eden stars in this hypnotic, swiftly paced blend of horror and sci-fi from Richard Matheson, the popular and prolific writer who also penned the novel I AM LEGEND and several notable THE TWILIGHT ZONE scripts.

The Family

A young family, living in isolation and forced into hard labor out of fear of dishonoring their Father and Mother, fight to free themselves from their religious cult.

The Secret of Karma

The story of a man who sees his past lives from before he was born after being declared dead for the second time.

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