Tweet
For much of the past two decades Svetlana has lived in small towns in Wisconsin. She moved there in the early 1970s when she married William Wesley Peters, a noted architect who was Frank Lloyd Wright's apprentice and lived in Spring Green, Wis., about 40 miles west of Madison. They had a daughter Olga before divorcing a few years later. Svetlana took the name Lana Peters, which she still uses. Olga calls herself Chrese Evans.
Film director Lana Parshina wanted to make a movie about Svetlana, but had difficulty finding her. She put an ad on Craigslist and paid a man to help. But when they found her she refused to have contact with anyone. She moves every few years to escape notice. Eventually Parshina was able to convince her to give a taped interview. She was very leery and if a question upset her she ended the interview. Finally she opened up and spoke in Russian for hours. The result was a fascinating interview that included reflections on her difficult childhood, her defection and her complex identity. She thanked the CIA for helping her defect to the US. After the interview she disappeared again and mail cannot be delivered to her because she has gone undercover.
The interview was in a documentary that was recently shown in a Madison, WI film festival.
By Ryan Foley in the Duluth newspaper.
Film director Lana Parshina wanted to make a movie about Svetlana, but had difficulty finding her. She put an ad on Craigslist and paid a man to help. But when they found her she refused to have contact with anyone. She moves every few years to escape notice. Eventually Parshina was able to convince her to give a taped interview. She was very leery and if a question upset her she ended the interview. Finally she opened up and spoke in Russian for hours. The result was a fascinating interview that included reflections on her difficult childhood, her defection and her complex identity. She thanked the CIA for helping her defect to the US. After the interview she disappeared again and mail cannot be delivered to her because she has gone undercover.
The interview was in a documentary that was recently shown in a Madison, WI film festival.
By Ryan Foley in the Duluth newspaper.
Comment