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Marriage tourism. There are companies that make a lot of money out of lonely and rich westerners and the hopeless situation of women in the old Eastern Block and Russia. A.R.M. (American Russian Matchmaking) is such a company. Finley and Stoeltje follow the journey that director Ron Rollband made to Moscow with twenty-one eager to marry American men following in his wake. Men who had two weeks to make a choice from five hundred Russian women. They filmed the parties, bus trips and banquets and followed a number of men and women on their quest. From the interviews it appears that people often feel embarrassed. The comparison to a cattle market has already been made by one of the participants themselves. Furthermore there is reason for some mistrust because what is wrong with American women? And are the Russian women interested in love or money? The motivation of both men and women is complex and ambiguous. The men are often fleeing female emancipation, they imagine that Russian women are more traditional. But, female emancipation was already established in the Russian constitution in 1917. When a Russian woman is taken by her new love and imagines that in going to America she is going to paradise, the language and culture differences prove to be a barrier for both. One wonders how many of these marriages will last.
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Lies Holtrop
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Camera: Jeanne C. Finley, Camera assistant: Julian Backus, Richard Fox, Morgan Barnard, Editing: Jeanne C. Finley, Gretchen Stoeltje, Eric Ladenburg, Sound and sound mixing: Phil Benson, Music: Marilyn S. Zalkan, Research: Karen Ward, Translation: Irina Shipina, With: Ron & Lydia Rollband, Tanya Bobrova, Kurt & Svetlana Hanke, Lydia Krilova, and others, Production: Jeanne C. Finley, Gretchen Stoeltje, Irina Shipina
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