Build a movie plot around this: Who is left with nothing but the clothes on his back? Vladimir
Set against the backdrop of the Cold War and Soviet political repression of the early 1980s prior to perestroika, Moscow on the Hudson tells the story of Vladimir Ivanoff (Robin Williams), a saxophonist with the Moscow circus.The story begins in New York with Vladimir advising a newly arrived Frenchman that he is on the wrong New York bus and giving him instructions on how to get to his destination. He then tells the Frenchman that it is always difficult getting around the city when one first arrives. Vladimir then begins remembering his own arrival to New York from Russia, and the scene shifts to Vladimir riding on a Russian bus some time earlier.Vladimir exits the bus and immediately witnesses a group of three people holding signs being accosted by two men, likely KGB agents or secret police, who force them into a nearby car and confiscate their signs. Vladimir then inquires of a passing Russian soldier if the nearby queue is for toilet paper; the soldier replies that it is for shoes. Vladimir joins the queue and obtains three pairs of shoes in the only size (38) now available.Vladimir arrives late to rehearsal at the circus and Boris (Savely Kramarov), one of the apparatchik assigned to the circus, criticizes him harshly and implies that he may miss the approaching trip to New York City. Vladimir tells him the reason he was late and ultimately gives Boris one pair of shoes obtained from the queue.Later, while Vladimir is riding with his friend, circus clown Anatoly Cherkasov (Elya Baskin), in Anatoly's Lada, Anatoly begins expressing his discontent with life in Russia, claiming that he is an oppressed artist. Vladimir expresses disinterest in Anatoly's complaints. Anatoly stops to buy fuel for his car from a mobile black-market gasoline dealer. While the friends wait for the gasoline seller to fill Anatoly's jerrycans, the two practice their English. Anatoly reveals to Vladimir in English that he plans to defect during the upcoming trip to New York. Vladimir is disconcerted that Anatoly has told him this...