In a desperate bid for freedom, a Lithuanian sailor, Simas Kudirka, decides to jump across the water from a Soviet vessel anchored off Martha’s Vineyard on to an American boat, on Thanksgiving Day in 1970. To the outcry of the world media, he's returned to the Soviets, tried for treason, and imprisoned for 8 years in Siberia. The incident set off a series of protests begging for his freedom throughout the US, including several in Boston. New information about Simas’s citizenship surfaces, marking the beginning of a long political battle to save him. Through eye-witness reports, rare archival footage, and a dramatic first-person re-enactment by the now 90-year-old, the film takes the viewer on a journey that became an inspiration for people, pictures and politics, reaching all the way up to the White House.

Partial proceeds benefit

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