蜜芽传媒

Chris Pouy was five years old when his grandmother Zoya Fyodorova was murdered. Zoya was a feted Soviet film star, until an affair with an American navy captain (resulting in the birth of a daughter, Victoria) led to Zoya's imprisonment on trumped-up charges of espionage.

Zoya survived imprisonment and separation from Victoria, regaining her freedom, her child, and her career with the death of Stalin in 1953.
By the time Zoya won an Oscar for her film Moscow Doesn't Believe in Tears, in 1981, she was preparing to defect to the US, where Victoria was already settled with an American husband and a son, Chris.

Chris remembers eagerly awaiting his grandmother Zoya's arrival, but the night before she was due to leave Russia, she was shot and killed in her Moscow apartment. After Zoya's murder, Chris's relationship with Victoria disintegrated as she battled with alcoholism and mental ill-health.

Decades later, haunted by unanswered questions, Chris went on a deep dive with a Russian TV show to investigate his grandmother's unsolved murder.

This episode contains a reference to suicide. If you are suffering distress or despair and need support, you could speak to a health professional, or an organisation that offers support. Details of help available in many countries can be found at Befrienders Worldwide. www.befrienders.org

Presenter: Asya Fouks
Producer: Sarah Kendal

Archive Clips courtesy of the Academy Awards, LenFilm studio and Channel One.

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(Photo: a still taken from the investigative Russian TV show with Chris Pouy in the foreground wearing a baseball cap, on a street with a colourful building with archetypal Russian architecture in the background. Credit: Chris Pouy)