Synopsis | Filmmakers | Voice Talent

Based on his soon-to-be published autobiography, OLEG reveals the incredible life story of Oleg Vidov. Born in communist Russia to a schoolteacher, by the age of 25, Oleg had become one of the Soviet Union’s most celebrated actors of his time. However, no amount of fame could save him from the political system that tried to control his life. He married into General Secretary Brezhnev’s inner circle only to wind up blacklisted, threatened with death, and forced to defect to the West. Reinventing himself in Hollywood, his efforts to counter anti-Russian stereotypes were attacked by the same forces that ruined his career decades earlier. Finally, in October 1991, with Oleg’s fears of persecution calmed by the rise of perestroika, he returned to Moscow to star in a Danish film. Then, two months later, on Christmas Day 1991, President Gorbachev resigned from office and the USSR collapsed.

  • Nadia Tass (Director)

    Nadia Tass is one of Australia’s most respected directors, known for directing classic Australian films Malcolm, The Big Steal and Amy, she has also been called on to direct by major Hollywood studios including: ABC, CBS, Disney, Universal Studios, and Warner Brothers as well as with the BBC in London, England. To date, Nadia’s film work has earned her some 70 international awards, including some at the most prestigious festivals in Cannes, Milan, Busan and Venice. Her first feature film in the US was Pure Happiness starring Danny Glover and Martin Short. In 2011, her film Matching Jack won multiple awards including Best Director, Best Film and Best Screenplay at the Milan International Film Festival. The film was also nominated for an AACTA Award and won the Jury Prize for Best Film at Cannes Cinephile 2011. Malcolm won 8 AFI awards, including Best Director, and another 23 International Awards, while Amy garnered 28 international awards from around the world. Her more recent films include Fatal Honeymoon starring Harvey Keitel and An American Girl: Lea To The Rescue starring Maggie Elizabeth Jones, Storm Reid and Sean Cameron Michael. Oleg is Nadia's first Feature Documentary film.

  • Joan Borsten (Producer)

    Joan was born in Santa Monica, California. Joan did her undergraduate studies at UC Berkeley and her graduate work at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, CA. In 1985, while working for the LA Times and living in Rome, she met her husband-to-be Oleg Vidov, who had just dramatically defected to the west, a few months later, the new couple moved to Los Angeles. Joan began a new chapter of her career working as a film industry executive. In 1992, Films by Jove, the film production and distribution company she and Oleg founded, acquired the international rights to an award-winning Russian animation library. They partnered with Mikhail Baryshnikov, who invited 36 leading actors to re-voice the stunningly beautiful animation, and subsequently released the films around the world. This instantly popularized Russian animation which had previously been seen primarily at a few film festivals. But, in 2007, the Russian State intervened and under the direction of the Kremlin, a Russian Oligarch bought back the rights to the Russian animation film library and all the rights and all the masters Oleg and Joan had worked so hard to restore, were gifted to a state-owned television station.

  • Andrea Guerra (Composer)

    Like Nadia, the award-winning Italian composer (Hotel Rwanda, Extraordinary Measures) grew up with a foot in each world. His father, screenwriter Tonino Guerra, one of Italy’s greatest screenwriters, frequently collaborated with such celebrated directors as Federico Fellini, Michaelangelo Antonioni and Francesco Rossi. He was a frequent visitor to Moscow during and after the Cold War, helped Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky leave Russia and wrote his film “Nostalghia.” From childhood Andrea was influenced by Russian music and culture. His work for his many films have garnered him Emmy, Golden Globe and Grammy Nominations including wins the European Film Awards, the Golden Satellite Awards and the Italian Music Awards.

Voice Talent

  • Brian Cox (Narrator)

    In 1987, during the early years of perestroika, the award-winning Scottish actor who worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company, ventured to Moscow for two weeks to teach a class of drama students at the famous Moscow Arts Theatre School (MHAT). Brian wound up staying for two years. He later wrote Salem to Moscow: An Actor’s Odyssey, a book about his experience directing the MHAT students in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. Thirty years later, he convinced the BBC to produce Brian Cox’s Russia, a documentary about the long history of Scots coming to Russia and falling in love with the culture. His daughter attended St. Petersburg University and is fluent in Russian. His love of Russian culture and background in the dark history of Russian politics, made him a perfect narrator. Currently starring in HBO’s hit series Succession, Brian recently won the 2020 Golden Globe for Best Actor in a TV Drama for his role as a media mogul, and was also nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in 2020.

  • Costa Ronin (Voice of Oleg)

    It was essential for both Joan, the producer, and for Nadia, the director, that Oleg’s voice in the film be done by a Russian actor who was in his 40s and spoke with a distinct, yet understandable Russian accent in English. For this, Joan and Nadia turned their sights on Costa Ronin. Costa was born in Kaliningrad and immigrated to New Zealand as a young man where he enrolled in a local university to study International Relations and Political Science. He then moved to Australia where he immersed himself in the performing arts and earned notable roles in a number of local Australian productions. His breakout on-screen role came with the award-winning TV series The Circuit, followed by his feature debut opposite Josh Licas in Red Dog, Australia’s highest grossing film. He went on to find international recognition when cast in the hit FX series The Americans for which he shares a Screen Actors Guild nomination for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series and as a KGB spy Yevgeny Gromov on the Emmy-Award winning Showtime series Homeland with Claire Danes and Mandy Patinkin.