Russian nuclear physicist turned political dissident Andrei Sakharov, whose outspoken views on human rights oppression in his homeland brought him not only the Nobel Peace Prize, but also internal exile in the closed-to-foreigners city of Gorky, was the timely subject of this made-for-cable film. It was so timely that its premiere date was moved forward by three months because of Sakharov's widely publicized hunger strike aimed at forcing the authorities to allow his activist wife, Dr. Elena Bonner, to go abroad (for a second time) for a needed operation. A voice-over epilogue brought the film, made in late 1983 in Austria and England, up to date as of its premiere.