An Epilogue That Rewrites the Past

Read Time:5 Minute, 6 Second

MOVIE REVIEW
The Long Way Home: Remastered and Expanded
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Genre: Documentary
Year Released: 1989, 2026
Runtime: 1h 38m
Director(s): Michael Apted
Where to Watch: shown at TO SAVE AND PROJECT: The 22nd MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation

RAVING REVIEW: What does it mean to capture a moment that history itself later refuses to honor? THE LONG WAY HOME: REMASTERED AND EXPANDED arrives less as a rediscovered relic than as a time capsule reopened. Originally released in 1989 and long unavailable, Michael Apted’s documentary about Russian rock icon Boris Grebenshchikov returns with a new restoration and an added epilogue that reframes everything that came before. What once played as an optimistic portrait of cultural exchange now carries the weight of lost possibility.

Apted approaches Grebenshchikov not as a political symbol but as a human being navigating a rare historical opening. The film follows Boris on his first journey to the West, where he records English-language music with Dave Stewart and interacts with artists such as Annie Lennox and Chrissie Hynde. Rather than mythologizing this crossover, Apted focuses on uncertainty. Boris is curious, guarded, excited, and visibly uneasy about what this transition might cost him.

The documentary’s greatest strength is Apted’s access. He allows conversations to unfold without steering them toward conclusions. Boris speaks openly about ambition, fear, and belonging, and the film captures moments where excitement and doubt coexist in the same breath. This observational approach gives the film an authenticity that resists turning its subject into a hero or cautionary tale.

Musically, the film offers an engaging snapshot of a creative collision. Studio sessions and performances highlight the contrast between Boris’ roots with the band Aquarium and the polished Western production surrounding him. These sequences are compelling not just for the music itself, but for what they reveal about identity. Boris doesn’t seem entirely convinced that success abroad equals fulfillment, and the film is wise enough to let that ambivalence remain unresolved.

What the film can only hint at, but what history now makes unavoidable, is just how radical Boris’ position already was before he ever set foot in the West. As the founder and creative anchor of Aquarium, he emerged from a Soviet underground where unsanctioned music was not just discouraged but actively policed. His songs circulated through bootleg tapes, small apartment concerts, and word of mouth, building a following that existed entirely outside of any official approval. This isn’t an artist chasing novelty, but one stepping into the spotlight after decades of enforced obscurity. THE LONG WAY HOME never spells this out explicitly, yet it lingers beneath every studio session and conversation. Boris’ hesitation isn’t insecurity, it’s memory. The freedom comes with the risk of dilution, misunderstanding, or erasure, and the film’s quietest moments suggest he understands that cost long before the audience does.

The remastering itself is respectful rather than showy. Sourced from a surviving 16mm print, the restoration preserves texture and imperfection rather than smoothing it all away. The grain, color variance, and occasional roughness serve as reminders of the film’s era and circumstances. This isn’t a modernized overhaul; it’s preservation with restraint.

The most significant addition is the new epilogue, co-directed by Steven Lawrence and Susanne Rostock. This reframes the entire documentary by tracing Boris’ life after the original film ended, culminating in his eventual exile from Russia for his opposition to the war in Ukraine. The epilogue is reflective rather than explanatory, offering a somber counterpoint to the optimism that defined the late 1980s footage.

While the epilogue is packed with emotion, it also highlights a structural imbalance. The new material feels necessarily compressed compared to the original film's leisurely pace. I wish that the expanded edition had gone further in integrating the past and the present rather than simply appending the two. Still, the epilogue fulfills a purpose Apted himself envisioned, and its presence adds gravity rather than redundancy.

Viewed today, THE LONG WAY HOME plays less like a music documentary and more like a study of historical fragility. The film captures a fleeting moment when borders felt permeable and cultural exchange seemed capable of rewriting futures. That hope, seen through hindsight, becomes both the film’s core and its quiet tragedy.

This remastered and expanded edition doesn’t reinvent the documentary, nor does it attempt to correct its limitations. Instead, it allows the film to age honestly, enriched by context rather than redefined by it. Apted’s humanist instincts remain front and center, reminding viewers that history is often understood most clearly through individual lives caught in its current. THE LONG WAY HOME: REMASTERED AND EXPANDED isn’t a flawless rediscovery, but it’s an important one. As a portrait of an artist, a moment, and a possibility that no longer exists in the same form, it earns its return.

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