The Defection of Simas Kudirka
| The Defection of Simas Kudirka | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Drama |
| Written by | Bruce Feldman |
| Directed by | David Lowell Rich |
| Starring | Alan Arkin |
| Music by | David Shire |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) |
Gerald W. Abrams Richard Briggs Gerald I. Isenberg Bruce Sallan |
| Editor(s) | John A. Martinelli |
| Running time | 100 minutes |
| Production company(s) |
Paramount Television The Jozak Company |
| Distributor | CBS |
| Release | |
| Original network | CBS |
| Original release |
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The Defection of Simas Kudirka is a 1978 television movie based on actual events, featuring Alan Arkin as Simas Kudirka, a Soviet merchant seaman in Soviet-era 1970 who attempts to defect to the United States by jumping onto a U.S. Coast Guard cutter. Among the movie's awards are two Emmys and another three Emmy nominations. The movie was directed by David Lowell Rich.
The movie revolves around the true events of a Lithuanian man named Simas Kudirka, who was at the time was a radio operator on a Soviet fish processing vessel. When his ship meets at sea with a U.S. Coast Guard cutter near Martha's Vineyard in early 1970, Kudirka makes a dramatic leap from the deck, landing on the USCGC Vigilant. He announces that he wishes to defect, but confusion over U.S. policy on defections prevents the Americans from offering him asylum. As the crew of the Vigilant looks on helplessly, Soviet officers are allowed to board the cutter, beat and bind Kudirka, and drag him back to his own ship. This tinderbox political incident occurs during a Soviet/U.S. conference over fishing rights. The ultimate fate of Simas Kudirka provides the core of the script.
The movie was filmed in Portsmouth, NH, the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine, and off the coast of New Hampshire and southern Maine. The final scene shows Simas Kudirka (Arkin) and his wife Genna (Shirley Knight) reviewing the crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Vigilant, the ship onto which Kudirka jumped. The actual ship shown in the movie was the USCGC Decisive at its home port of New Castle, NH The TS 'State of Maine', the training ship of Maine Maritime Academy in Castine, Maine was used as the Russian fish factory ship. Many students at MMA were extras as Russian crewmen.
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