These days, the daily flight from Moscow to New York City carries a few American families with Russian children — some cross-eyed or hare lipped, but all with pasty complexions and brand new, ill fitting American clothing.
Russian law allows foreign nationals to adopt Russian orphans. But there is a catch: only children with birth defects and incurable medical conditions may be adopted. Adopting Olya is the story of one such adoption.
Four-year-old Olya has lived in the Children’s Home in Chelyabinsk all her life. She has been diagnosed with a vague “developmental disability.” Olya knows her future American family only from a little photo album:
Directors: Slawomir Grünberg, Slava Paperno.
Russia, 1996.
Language: English.
Download Adopting Olya. 1995.