The Russia House

The Russia House is a 1990 American spy film directed by Fred Schepisi and starring Sean Connery, Michelle Pfeiffer, Roy Scheider, James Fox, John Mahoney, Klaus Maria Brandauer and director Ken Russell. Tom Stoppard wrote the screenplay based on John le Carré's 1989 novel of the same name. It was the first US motion picture to be shot substantially on location in the Soviet Union. Plot Bartholomew "Barley" Scott-Blair, head of a British publishing firm, arrives in Moscow on business. At a writers' retreat near Peredelkino, he speaks of an end to tensions with the West, heard by the mysterious "Dante", who demands that Barley promise to do the right thing if the opportunity arises. A few months later, unable to locate Barley at a trade show, a young Soviet named Katya Orlova asks publisher Nicky Landau to give Barley a manuscript. Landau sneaks a look and delivers it to British government authorities. The manuscript is a document detailing the Soviet Union's capability for waging nuclear war. An investigation reveals that "Dante" is renowned Soviet physicist Yakov Efraimovich Saveleyev, author of the manuscript. British intelligence officers track Barley to his holiday flat in Lisbon and interrogate him about his ties to Katya, but realize he knows as little as they do. MI6 knows that the manuscript is also of vital importance to the CIA, with both agencies seeking Barley to work on their behalf. British agent Ned gives Barley some basic training as a spy.