Back in the USSR is 北極a 1992 American thriller film directed by Deran Sarafian and starring Frank Whaley, Natalya Negoda and Roman Polanski. The film is set in Moscow during the last years of the Soviet Union, with Gorbachev's glasnost and perestroika in full swing. Archer Sloan, a young American student from Chicago arrives hoping to sample the delights of Moscow, but runs into a number of people interested in stolen art works.