UPC 063390099603

In 1959 at the height of the cold war, a 19 year old American marine defects to the Soviet Union & disappears behind the Iron Curtain. He would not only be America s most famous defector, but its most infamous assassin. Lee Harvey Oswald is now one of the most well known & controversial names of the century. Few people are aware of Oswalds years in cold war Minsk - how he got there, how he acted & why he left. For the first time we can look at Oswalds character from a new perspective - the Russian perspective, to see if Lee could indeed have acted alone in Dallas Texas in November of 1963. Shot entirely in Minsk over three years, this is a meticulously researched docudrama.

• When the Soviets refused to let him in, he changed their minds with a bloody, impulsive suicide attempt. The KGB let him stay. Reenactments portray the moment. Historical Soviet footage & documents Lees letter 'I would kill any American'.
• Sent to Minsk, he reaches the happiest point in his life. He has money, friends & pretty girls. He could not imagine that his life would soon undergo a sudden dramatic reversal. Reenactments, rare Belarusian archive film & never before seen photos take the viewer into Oswalds world based on his own diary. Interviews with: Erich (Ernst) Titovets, the best friend Oswald ever had, who speaks for the first time; Stanislav Shushkevich, ex President of Belarus & Oswalds Russian language teacher; & Victor Lebenov, a friend from Minsk University, where Lee liked to party.
• Ironically, the anti-American defector was treated by the KGB as a dedicated American spy. Reenactments based on accounts from ex KGB Chief Shirkovsky Oswald being drugged at parties, wiretapping his apartment, & using his friends as spies. KGB follows Lee on a hunting trip after he buys a shotgun & almost kills a fellow hunter. Lee s KGB documents & KGB file seen for the first time on film. KGB concludes Oswald is 'useless'.
• Oswalds heart is broken by Ella Germann, a Belarusian woman who refused his marriage proposal. He goes into deep depression & asks the U.S. Embassy to get him out. She probably sealed Kennedy s fate. Actual photos of Ella, reenactments based on Lee s diary & analysis by Titovets. Lee s letter to embassy.
• Oswalds downward spiral stops briefly when he marries Marina Prusacova, who some thought was a KGB agent. She has no idea what shes in for. Only surviving wedding photo, reenactments of escalating fights, actual KGB transcript of a violent fight in their apartment. A look inside that apartment now & comments from present owner.

He gets the KGB to let him go & persuades the U.S. to drop all charges & even pay his way back. He leaves with wife & daughter. Historical photos taken at train station. Analysis of what kind of man was in that train by Titovets and Lebenov. Conclusion: As he left the Soviet Union at 22, he would stop at nothing to achieve his goals, he has an unwavering desire to be the center of attention & an increasing tendency towards violence. Soon he ll be homicidal. Oswald was the type of person who could have killed Kennedy alone on an impulse. Switch to Dallas, November 21, 1963. Oswald works at a job he hates, he's beating his wife & is more bitter then ever. He reads Kennedy will pass by his workplace at the book depository within 24 hours. Utilizing rarely seen photos from the National Archives & testimony given to the Warren Commission, we look at Oswalds movements over those 24 hours and compare his actions in Dallas, to his behavior in Soviet Russia.