Das Vedanya

Tone & Style: Slow-burning political thriller faithful to 40 years of changes in style, fashion, music and historical events. And while things get off to an amusing ‘70s start, they soon turn dark and menacing as life-threatening dangers, shocking betrayals and heartbreaking tragedies surge in. The constantly evolving story world is always in flux, but at its core is one woman’s powerful emotional journey as she struggles with divided loyalties to navigate her way through a web of lies and deceit that seem to have no end. The undercover espionage of THE AMERICANS, the propulsive tension and duplicity of BLACK DOVES and NO WAY OUT, the Cold War treachery of KLEO and the sweet satirical comedy of NINOTCHKA combine in a highly cinematic and gripping tale of a brave woman with a strong sense of duty and honor caught between two worlds and forced to choose sides, knowing that whatever she does, there’s no way out. Story Overview: 1978. After 30 long years, the Cold War has reached a tipping point. Western culture and capitalism have never been more vibrant while Soviet Communism is dying on the vine. The Soviet economy is in shambles. The USSR makes nothing anyone wants while America is flooding the world with blue jeans, movies, fast food and rock and roll. The threat of nuclear war still looms large, but the Kremlin knows it’s over. And while the West has won the battle for hearts and minds, Russia can still win the war. A top secret plan code-named DAS VEDANYA has been developed to destroy America from within without firing a shot. It will take time, perhaps 40 years, and infinite patience, but the pieces are in place and the wheels are in motion. A certain man will be found, and a remarkable young woman has been tasked to see it through. America will set itself ablaze on a bonfire of hatred and division and Moscow will be only too happy to sit back and fan the flames. After a fascinating stage-setting montage of anti-Soviet Cold War movies and TV shows from the 1950s through the ‘80s, we plunge into Moscow in 1978, where the beautiful, stern-faced KGB Major Katarina Ivanovna Smetkova is summoned to the Kremlin. Having no idea why she’s there, she sits ramrod straight as the chain-smoking Premier reviews her resume: Young Pioneers, University of Kiev highest honors, KGB Foreign Intelligence Service, promoted to Major at 28…he asks if she has any boyfriends and she answers in her husky Garbo voice, “None worth remembering,” which brings a chuckle. The Premier says the Cold War is lost and the Soviet Union will soon be dead. As Smetkova stares in shock, he says a new Russia will rise from the ashes fueled by trillions in petrodollars and we will become “such crazy fucking capitalists that Lenin will spin in his tomb. We can’t match the West economically and nuclear war is out of the question, but we can beat America at it’s own game without firing a shot.” They will undermine the enemy from within by sowing discord and division among its people, and she will be sent to New York on a lifelong mission to become Americanized and ready to groom a man of Moscow’s choosing to be President. The suave Col. Alexi Petrov continues the briefing in his office, which looks like it belongs to a Madison Avenue Creative Director. Katarina starts loosening up, feeling at ease in Petrov’s presence as he outlines the mission, code-named “Das Vedanya” – Russian for “see you later” as America’s sun sinks slowly in the west. Katarina’s amazed by his encyclopedic knowledge of American politics, television, music, pressure points and trends and learns that America isn’t as unified as it pretends to be. They’re going to take advantage of its already deep racial, social, religious, educational, geographic, income and political divides and make them irreparable. Petrov says a small California company called Apple has just made the first home computer and predicts it will change the world. The days of three networks and major papers shaping the news are over. Soon there will be thousands of channels and billions of people writing their own news and opinions without regulation or censorship – a Wild West of information where anything goes. Katarina is enthralled. Petrov is the most brilliant man she’s ever met and finds herself falling in love. But first, they must shed their Russian names. He is Alex Peters, and she is Katharine Smetski, a pretty Polish girl educated in Switzerland. After a month in Sweden acclimating to the west, she will go to New York and meet her contact in Brooklyn. Alex wants her to rise in the American business world and suggests advertising as the best way to plug into American culture and learn what makes it tick. Soon she’ll be as American as apple pie, and when Alex finds the right man, the plan will kick into high gear. They spend an amorous night together, sealing a relationship that will last a lifetime. Katharine arrives in Brooklyn looking like an innocent tourist and moves in with her fatherly Russian host Anton and his three highly amusing Americanized sons Sasha, Sergei and Mischa, who quickly introduce her snack food, swearing, disco and the joys of being a loud-mouthed sports fan. The stern-faced KGB Major vanishes before our eyes as Katharine falls in love with New York and its pulsating spirit, just like Ninotchka fell in love with Paris and its charms. Captivated by Manhattan’s towering skyline and and infectious energy, Katharine soon meets the dashing and effervescent Jerry Adler, a top Madison Avenue ad man who calls her Kate and introduces her to bacon cheeseburgers and chocolate shakes (“The lunch of the Gods!”). Smitten by Kate’s brains and beauty, Jerry hires her as his Executive Assistant and she takes to the pizazz and creative spark of advertising like a duck to water. Jerry buys her a whole new Ralph Lauren wardrobe at Barneys and Kate rises quickly to EVP, using her leadership and organizational skills to turn the agency into a Madison Avenue dynamo billing over $300 million. And when Jerry tragically dies of AIDS in 1985, Kate becomes President and inherits Jerry’s controlling stock and his spectacular penthouse apartment. Jerry’s death is a major blow. After seven wonderful and lucrative years as his protégé and her happy home life in Brooklyn, Kate’s now captain of the ship and has to say goodbye to Anton and his sons, who’ve grown closer than family. As the agency limo waits outside, the boys tell Kate not to forget them on her rise to the top. Kate promises she won’t, and it’s a promise she’ll keep in spades. Kate dives into her new role with a vengeance, hiring two top creative directors to replace Jerry and driving the agency to even greater heights while setting the tone in stunning Armani outfits that make her the toast of Madison Avenue. As her star rises fast and new clients flow through the door, Kate’s never felt more alive and forgets all about her mission. Suddenly Alex calls and summons her to Paris. Kate’s shocked to hear his voice and tries to demur, but knows she has to go. They make love in Alex’s sumptuous suite at the George V and the next morning, after catching up on the Motherland westernizing under Gorbachev, Alex says he’s found the perfect con man for Kate to groom: a womanizing, thrice-bankrupt Manhattan real estate developer named Raymond Gold. Kate stares in shock. She knows all about Gold’s sordid reputation and can't believe he's the man Alex has chosen. As they walk along the Seine and Alex orders Kate to sell her beloved agency and go into investment banking so the Kremlin can financially own Gold, Kate goes ballistic. And in a heated argument where tempers explode, Kate refuses to sell her agency or work with a sleazebag like Gold and says she’s out. Alex bluntly reminds her there is no “out” and threatens to expose her as a KGB spy, destroy her beloved ad agency and kill Anton and his sons if she doesn’t get her loyalties straight. Kate knows the threat is real and finally gives in, but the fabric of their relationship is irreparably torn. Kate’s inner conflict starts tearing her apart. And after a long soul-searching night that ends at the Statue of Liberty, Kate takes steps to protect herself and adroitly plays both sides of the fence. With the help of Leonard, Jerry’s venerable attorney who Kate hires as her own, Kate quietly becomes an American citizen, sells the agency for $110 million, opens the Kate Smetski Group and introduces Gold to German and Russian bankers supplied by Alex eager to lend billions. Kate hates the vainglorious Gold but she forces herself to be professional, knowing that her life and Anton’s and his sons are at stake. She brokers deals pocketing hundreds of millions in fees and closes out the ‘90s rich beyond her wildest dreams, but hating herself for being trapped. Flush with cash and remembering her promise, Kate opens a high-end corporate security firm on the 87th floor of the World Trade Center and puts Sasha, Sergei and Mischa in charge. The boys have grown up and take to their new life with gusto. And to keep them safe from Alex’s clutches, she buys a beautiful brownstone in Park Slope and gives it to Anton and his sons as a gift. But there’s a catch. They have to dance for her, and Kate wonders if they’ve still got the moves. The Kings have definitely still got ‘em and in a glorious scene with a boom box thumpin’, Kate and the boys dance up a storm like it’s 1978. As Kate rides her limo down FDR drive on a bright September morning to meet with Sasha, Sergei and Mischa and have lunch, she suddenly sees the North Tower of the World Trade Center ablaze – an image forever etched in history. She races to Park Slope and finds Anton dying of a heart attack with the TV on and both towers burning. Everyone she’s loved is gone: Jerry, Anton, the boys…Kate sinks into deep depression and doesn’t know where to turn. Desperate to have his bet on Gold pay off, Alex comes up with a big idea: make him a TV star. His own reality show, where contestants vie for a job in his company. Against her will, Kate pitches the idea to Gold, who loves it. And in one season, “The Gold Standard,” a wicked spin on “The Apprentice,” breaks ratings records. Gold quickly becomes an admired national celebrity and, to Kate’s horror, starts seeing himself as a future President. The train’s left the station and there’s nothing Kate can do to stop it. 2016. After a savage campaign unlike anything in modern times, Gold wins the Republican nomination for President. Meeting with Alex in Paris, Kate, now 66, doubts Gold can win the White House. But Alex knows better. In fact, he’s giddy as a schoolboy. Das Vedanya has exceeded his wildest dreams. Gold has been spectacularly vicious and divisive, Russian bots and plants have flooded social media with fake news and lies, the networks have fanned the flames and Fox News deserves The Order of Lenin for shamelessly turning Gold into a God. It’s all over but the crying. Feeling magnanimous, Alex releases Kate from her mission and promises not to kill her as long as she keeps her mouth shut. But Kate doesn’t trust him. She secretly records the entire conversation on her phone and as she flies back to New York, she listens to the recording on her earbuds and knows she’s got the goods. Wracked with guilt over her part in Gold’s rise to power and afraid for her life despite Alex’s assurances, Kate sells her apartment, buys a luxury cabin on a lake near a small New England town, changes her name to Greta Smith and vanishes from sight as Gold wins the election. Only one person in the world knows where she lives, and that’s her attorney Leonard. Settled in comfortably as winter arrives, Kate emails ace Times reporter Maggie Boyd using the handle “Comrade Ninotchka” and offers to blow the lid off Alex, Gold and the “Das Vedanya” plot going back 40 years. Skeptical at first, Maggie soon realizes “Comrade Ninotchka” is for real and she’s sitting on a keg of dynamite. Maggie offers to meet in person, assuring confidentiality but Kate refuses – to protect Maggie as much as herself. As Kate doles out her remarkably detailed story piece by piece and the mystery deepens, Maggie desperately tries to figure out who “Ninotchka” could be. Suddenly Leonard shows up at the cabin unannounced to wish Kate Merry Christmas and in a shocking betrayal, pulls a gun and reveals that Alex co-opted him years ago with a $20 million bribe, threatening to kill his daughters if he didn’t play ball. But Kate, still a seasoned operative and prepared for emergencies, get the drop on the aging Leonard and dumps his body in the lake. Knowing the KGB will never stop hunting her until she’s dead, Kate urgently emails Maggie, says her cover’s been blown and gives her directions to the cabin, where all will be revealed. As Maggie drives north fearing the worst, Kate – wearing a defiant blue-and-yellow Ukrainian scarf – types up a dossier titled “Das Vedanya” while drinking an entire quart of vodka. She lays out her life history on a table like a last will and testament with photo IDs, business cards, flash drives, recordings, laptop and phone, then sits in a chair at the end of the dock and slowly freezes herself to death as the temperature hits 5 below zero. Maggie arrives at the cabin that night and examines the mysterious Comrade Ninotchka’s stunning life story, then stares out the windows in horror at the frozen figure at the end of the dock, realizing that Major Katarina Ivanovna Smetkova took the only way out she could.