'' A Captive in the Land '' was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival . Stephen Holden in his review for '' The New York Times '' , noted : " Had it stuck to the stark physical realities of the situation , " A Captive in the Land , " which opens today at the Angelika Film Center , could have been a gripping film . But the movie , which was completed before the crumbling of the Soviet Union , insists on lending the relationship between the American and the Russian a turgid metaphoric significance . " A later review in '' TV Guide '' has similar assessments : " The plot and theme of A CAPTIVE IN THE LAND dates back , of course , to Jack London , long a favorite author among Russians , and the entire film project is colored by the reconciliation of American and Russian . Whether as a joint production with Maxim Gorky Film Studios or as an expression of rival ideologies ( in a brief argument between the characters that seem outdated and silly ) ' A Captive in the Land ' is oddly unexciting . Potapov 's chatty and literate Russian does not mesh at all well with Waterston 's laconic would-be hero , and the location scenes look like stock footage . "
1991 Cannes Film Festival
1991 Cannes Film Festival
A Captive in the Land