The Long Way Home: Remastered and Expanded (2026)

Michael Apted's portrait of former Soviet underground rock star Boris Grebenshchikov. The film follows Grebenshchikov as he comes west in 1988 in order to record his music and try to make a connection with Western audiences.

Unavailable for decades except via VHS video tapes, THE LONG WAY HOME was restored from the only known surviving 16mm print, and it has a 20-minute epilogue that brings the story up to date.

My feelings for the film are mixed, with my feelings split between the original film and the epilogue. For me the original Apted film is okay. Yes, the subject is good, and yes, it's a blast to see the who's who of musicians' march through the film in order to meet Grebenshchikov. The music is also quite good. However, the presentation isn't anything that makes it stand out from other films of the 1980's. This film looks and feels like a 1980's music doc. That's not a knock, just a realization that almost four decades have passed since the film originally came out.

My feelings for the film changed with the epilogue. Thirty-five plus years on the look back re-configures what we had just seen. There was no big American career for Grebenshchikov and the whys and what's that we see puts the story in a whole new light. There is a bittersweet quality to it all.  For me the epilogue makes the movie because it gives a glaring context to it all.

If you want to see THE LONG WAY HOME do so in this restored version because makes an old film into something special.