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The circumstances surrounding Letter to Brezhnev's production, and the
resourcefulness demanded of its makers, speak as much of the time and place from
which it was sprung (a 1980s Liverpool blighted by unemployment and industrial
decline) as the characterisation of the city represented in the film itself. The
film was made on a shoestring budget in less than three weeks, calling on the
unpaid services of family and friends; the filmmakers borrowed equipment for the
shoot, with cast and crew agreeing to work on the promise of deferred pay. It
had its world premiere in October 1985 in the distinctly un-showbiz environs of
Knowsley council's offices.
The film's unexpected success, coupled with its unembellished and unflinching
portrayal of a post-industrial city on the margins of Thatcher's Britain, has
meant that Letter to Brezhnev has done more than perhaps any other film before
or since in putting Liverpool on the cinematic map. On its home turf, part of
this success can be attributed to its articulation - in the form of a cinematic
postcard to the nation - of a self-consciously critical local voice ("Just look
at this city," says a taxi-driver at one point, "whoever did the planning for
all this wants his balls roasted").
Set against the backdrop of Thatcherism, new romanticism, and a Europe still
in the grip of the Cold War, the film is politically and culturally very much of
its time. Its sympathetic portrayal of the Russians offered the prospect of a
thaw in East-West relations, an approach that was little evident in the British
media in 1985. As Elaine asks, can Russia really be any worse than Liverpool?
For the film's Moscow sequences,
the budget constraints demanded a certain resourcefulness when it came to
location shooting, with the skyline of Birkenhead providing an admirable stand
in for the Russian capital. This was to be the first of many occasions on which
Liverpool was to serve as a double for other cities. Indeed, the success of
Letter to Brezhnev was instrumental in the development of initiatives which
sought to promote Liverpool as a leading centre of film production, exploiting
the city's locations and architectural heritage. Liverpool is now the second
most filmed city in the UK, after London.
Les Roberts
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1. On the make (3:30)
Original poster
