“At its heart, A.R.M. Around Moscow is about a new U.S. export, the feminist backlash. Whereas the Russian women yearn for liberation from an uncertain future, the American men look to a past where they were armed for domination.” —Steve Seid, American Cultures (Berkeley: Pacific Film Archives, 1994)
A.R.M. Around Moscow documents the American dating service A.R.M. (American-Russian Matchmaking). When it becomes clear that “writing, phoning and faxing just isn’t enough,” the Los Angeles-based A.R.M. brings its American members to Moscow where they meet up to 500 Russian women in 10 days. The film questions the relationship of personal power to domestic identity, and economic and political structure, comparing the lives of Russian and American women, while simultaneously revealing a profound loneliness and yearning for mutual love experienced by men and women on both sides of the Atlantic.
From the moment of their anxious arrival at the Moscow airport throughout their dances, banquets, bus tours, and night club dates, to their tearful departures with their newly acquired fiancées, the American men repeatedly disparaged American women as “too feminist,” “demanding,” “unappreciative” and most importantly, “lacking in traditional family values.” The Russian women, exhausted from balancing career and all domestic responsibilities while battling shortages of basic food and living supplies, look to these men as a possible hope for a better life and mutual love.
Despite the alienation driving the men and women to this matchmaking agency, A.R.M. Around Moscow is both humorous and hopeful and reveals the tremendous compassion the Russian women bring to their lives.