''Sakharov'' is a 1984 American

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

directed by

Jack Gold Jacob M. Gold (28 June 1930 – 9 August 2015) was a British film and television director. He was part of the British realist tradition which followed the Free Cinema movement. Career Jacob M. Gold was born on 28 June 1930, in North Lond ...

and written by David W. Rintels. The film stars

Jason Robards Jason Nelson Robards Jr. (July 26, 1922 – December 26, 2000) was an American actor. Known for his roles on stage and screen, he gained a reputation as an interpreter of the works of playwright Eugene O'Neill. Robards received numerous accola ...

Glenda Jackson Glenda May Jackson (9 May 1936 – 15 June 2023) was an English actress and politician. Over the course of her distinguished career she received List of awards and nominations received by Glenda Jackson, numerous accolades including two Academy ...

Nicol Williamson Thomas Nicol Williamson (14 September 1936 – 16 December 2011) was a British actor. He was once described by playwright John Osborne as "the greatest actor since Marlon Brando". He was also described by Samuel Beckett as "touched by genius" an ...

Frank Finlay Francis Finlay, (6 August 1926 – 30 January 2016) was an English actor. He earned an Academy Award nomination for his performance as Iago in ''Othello'' (1965). His first leading television role came in 1971 in '' Casanova''.

, Michael Bryant and Paul Freeman. The film premiered on

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

on June 20, 1984.

Plot

The film is the story of the later life of the Russian nuclear scientist

Andrei Sakharov Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov (; 21 May 192114 December 1989) was a Soviet Physics, physicist and a List of Nobel Peace Prize laureates, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, which he was awarded in 1975 for emphasizing human rights around the world. Alt ...

, played by

. In 1966, Sakharov signs the “Letter of Twenty-Five” to the 23rd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, opposing the rehabilitation of Stalin, and this event divides his life into before and after phases. What follows is official persecution and loss of awards. He becomes a human rights activist and marries fellow campaigner Yelena Bonner (

). After Sakharov founds the Committee on Human Rights in the USSR, he is forced into internal exile, but is allowed by

Mikhail Gorbachev Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet and Russian politician who served as the last leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to dissolution of the Soviet Union, the country's dissolution in 1991. He served a ...

to return to Moscow. He has become a notable international figure.

Cast

as Yelena Bonner *

as Malyarov *

as Kravtsov * Michael Bryant as Syshchikov * Paul Freeman as Pavel Leontiev *

Anna Massey Anna Raymond Massey (11 August 19373 July 2011) was an English actress. She won a British Academy Film Awards, BAFTA Best Actress Award for the role of Edith Hope in the Hotel du Lac (film), 1986 TV adaptation of Anita Brookner's novel ''Hotel ...

as Klavdia * Joe Melia as

Sergei Kovalev Sergei Adamovich Kovalyov (also spelled Sergey Kovalev; ; 2 March 1930 – 9 August 2021) was a Russian human rights activist and politician. During the Soviet period he was a dissident and, after 1975, a political prisoner. Early career and ...

Lee Montague Leonard Goldberg (16 October 1927 – 30 March 2025), known professionally as Lee Montague, was an English actor noted for his roles in film and television, usually playing tough guys. Early life Montague was born in Bow, London. His family wa ...

as Slavsky * Jim Norton as Roy Medvedev * Valentine Pelka as Efrem Sakharov *Catherine Hall as Tanya Sakharov *John McAndrew as Alyosha Sakharov *

Debbie Farrington ''The Black Panther'' is a 1977 British crime film directed and produced by Ian Merrick, his first feature, and stars Donald Sumpter, Debbie Farrington and Marjorie Yates. Its subject is the real life ex-military criminal Donald Neilson, know ...

as Lisa Sakharov *David Midwinter as Matvel Sakharov, age 10 *Craig Dickerson as Matvel Sakharov, age 5 *Toni Warwick as Anya Sakharov * Eileen Way as Ruf Grigorievna * Denyse Alexander as Dr. Lydia * Marion Bailey as Ludmilla Kovalov * Anton Lesser as Valery Chalidze

References

External links

* 1984 television films 1984 films 1984 drama films HBO Films films Films directed by Jack Gold Films scored by Carl Davis Films shot in Austria Films shot in London American drama television films 1980s English-language films 1980s American films {{1980s-US-film-stub