The set's most humane film is "The Return of the Prodigal Son" (1967), directed by Schorm, who died in 1988 on the day before his 57th birthday.

WSJ: Pearls of the Czech New Wave | Before the Spring Was Gone | By David Mermelstein

The moral motion of the film is fairly simple the return, and redemption, of a prodigal son but Gray steeps his tale in murky complication, and the staging of every scene, be it downbeat or frantic, is so assured that you barely notice the implausibilities. (Bobby and Joseph, for instance, hardly look like brothers.) The rain-drenched car chase, halfway through, is reason enough to see the film.

NEWYORKER: We Own the Night

It was the election of Viktor Yanukovich as Ukraine's president in February that was seen in Moscow as paving the way for the return to the Russian fold of a prodigal son who went astray after the Orange revolution in 2004.

ECONOMIST: Ukraine and Russia