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A Risk of Exposure

In 1953, Russian ballet teacher plots to smuggle photos of Stalin's crimes while part of a cultural exchange to the U.S. With the KGB in close pursuit, she finds an unexpected ally.

Anya Pevcik's last gift from her husband was an incriminating parcel of film and photographs that proved the atrocities in a Siberian labor camp. When he is hauled to a firing squad, she vows to reveal Stalin's crimes to the world.

Now, seven years later, in 1953, as a ballet teacher in Latvia, she has built a new life with her daughter Katya and her niece Galina, and she has the chance to bring her dancers to America. She plots to smuggle the photos under the nose of Rudolph Beshkov, whose cover as a cultural minister hides not only his KGB agent persona but his own romantic interest in her. Anya's talented niece Galina Andrepovna, the principal dancer, guards a secret, too: a love affair with Rudolph's idealistic son, Yevgeny, a pianist who yearns to defect to the West with Galina.

An accidental encounter on a busy sidewalk and a spilled purse lead an American photographer to discover some of Anya's film. Convinced by his intentions to help her and frightened by his stories of persecution of his own family by Senator Joseph McCarthy, she shares her plans. Finally, on the night of the dancers' final performance. Yevgeny decides to take his chance at freedom and defect, and Anya prepares to risk everything to fulfill her promise to the one man she loved so many years ago. Will it succeed, and what compromises will they all be forced to make?

Script Excerpt
Written by:
Format:
Screenplay
Budget:
Modest
Starring Roles For:
Viggo Mortenson
Juliette Binoche
Daniel Radcliffe
In the Vein Of:
Julia
Spy Games
Breach
Posted:
06/25/2004
Updated:
10/08/2023
Author Bio:
High school history teacher and former newspaper and magazine columnist

Writing credits include educational testing materials and 3 unproduced screenplays

Contest Results:
Screenplay Festival (Finalist) [2014]
Red Inkworks (Semifinalist) [2004]
Writers Network Screenplay & Fiction Competition (Semifinalist) [2004]
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