The Long Way Home: Remastered And Expanded Is Coming To TVOD Nationwide
Share the Force:
Carl Roberts 
Michael Apted’s The Long Way Home: Remastered And Expanded is coming to TVOD in the U.S., Canada, the UK, and more this October.
Michael Apted’s THE LONG WAY HOME: REMASTERED AND EXPANDED (2026) is to be released nationwide on Amazon, Apple TV, Google, and all major platforms in the US and Canada on October 20.
The film will also be available in the UK, France, Germany, and key countries the week of October 19 on major platforms.
The film is the remastered version, based on the only existing 16mm print, supervised by producer Steven Lawrence and editor Susanne Rostock. Moreover, THE LONG WAY HOME: REMASTERED AND EXPANDED (2026) is a revealing, rollicking portrait of the Soviet underground rock legend Boris Grebenshchikov. He became the first to record in the West during the early, optimistic days of Glasnost. The film features Boris Grebenshchikov, Dave Stewart, and members of the legendary Russian rock band Aquarium. It also features special appearances by Annie Lennox, Chrissie Hynde, Ray Cooper, Crosby, Stills & Nash, and many more.
THE PREMISE
Michael Apted’s The Long Way Home is a revealing, rollicking portrait of the Soviet underground rock legend Boris Grebenshchikov. He became the first to record in the West during the early, optimistic days of Glasnost. Not quite believing he would collaborate with Dave Stewart, Annie Lennox, Chrissie Hynde, and Ray Cooper, Grebenshchikov pushed boundaries. The film was released to critical acclaim after its UK broadcast and Sundance premiere. However, it has largely disappeared over the past 30 years. By 1988, Apted was already a hot director both in fiction (Coal Miner’s Daughter, Gorillas in the Mist) and nonfiction. He created the legendary Up series and Bring on the Night, his concert film about the making of Sting’s first solo album.
Apted’s astonishing ability to get people to open up led to this complex study of an artist who seized a moment of unimaginable freedom to make new music with new musicians. Yet, he found members of his longtime band, Aquarium, feeling abandoned. His longtime Russian fans were uncertain about his English-language songs when he returned home to perform them.
Thanks to Steven Lawrence, the film’s producer, THE LONG WAY HOME: REMASTERED AND EXPANDED (2026) will now have a second life in this newly remastered edition. In addition, he and Susanne Rostock, the film’s editor, created an epilogue charting Grebenshchikov’s fate after the release of his US album Radio Silence, as an exile and an outspoken critic of Putin’s war in Ukraine. The new epilogue partially fulfills Apted’s own ambitions to make a sequel before his death in 2021.
MICHAEL APTED
Michael Apted made documentaries and feature films for over forty years. Among his globally recognized, award-winning documentaries are the UP SERIES (1964-2019). This series followed the lives of 14 British people from the age of seven and revisited them every 7 years. He also created THE LONG WAY HOME; MOVING THE MOUNTAIN; INCIDENT AT OGLALA and THE POWER OF THE GAME. His movies include COAL MINER’S DAUGHTER, which received 7 Academy Award nominations. Sissy Spacek won Best Actress for her role. Other films include GORKY PARK; GORILLAS IN THE MIST; THUNDERHEART; NELL; and the James Bond film THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH.
ENIGMA; AMAZING GRACE; THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER; CHASING MAVERICKS; and UNLOCKED. He also cast the HBO series ROME and directed the first three episodes. Additionally, he directed several episodes of RAY DONOVAN and MASTERS OF SEX for Showtime. In 2019, 63 UP was released theatrically. Michael was President of the Directors Guild of America for an unprecedented three terms, from 2003 through 2009.
STEVEN LAWRENCE
Steven Lawrence is a producer-director who has been making documentaries for over 30 years about artists, activists, and everyday heroes. His subjects range from underground Soviet rockers to a Senegalese rapper fighting female genital cutting, to cat rescuers in Brooklyn, and scientists racing to save the human microbiome. As a producer, he has produced three feature docs in collaboration with Michael Apted. These include THE LONG WAY HOME: REMASTERED AND EXPANDED (2026) and MARRIED IN AMERICA. He created the International Emmy Award-winning series BORN IN THE USSR. He produced the first film, AGE 7 IN THE USSR.
Among his other producing credits are THE FURIOUS FORCE OF RHYMES; SARABAH (Movies That Matter Golden Butterfly Award), and Heddy Honigmann’s 100 UP. His directing credits include TELL TCHAIKOVSKY THE NEWS: ROCK IN RUSSIA for MTV. He also directed the interactive documentary series VIS à VIS for PBS; THE CAT RESCUERS, winner of the 2018 Hamptons International Film Festival animal rights award; and THE INVISIBLE EXTINCTION (with Sarah Schenck).
SUSANNE ROSTOCK
Susanne’s over 20-year collaboration as editor with director Michael Apted produced such richly provocative films as: THE LONG WAY HOME; INCIDENT AT OGLALA; ME & ISAAC NEWTON; INSPIRATIONS; THE POWER OF THE GAME; MOVING THE MOUNTAIN.
Esteemed as “an aural and visual poet”, Susanne’s most recent film as director/editor, FOLLOWING HARRY, joins the artist and activist Harry Belafonte, at the age of 84, as he embarks on an eleven-year journey to find out how to redirect oppression to oblivion. The film premiered at the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival. It’s a sequel to SING YOUR SONG, Susanne’s film about Harry Belafonte’s earlier life as an artist and activist. It opened the U.S. Documentary Competition section of the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and was shortlisted for an Oscar. It also garnered the NAACP Image Award.
Susanne is presently producing, directing, and editing THE HIDDEN DIARY OF DIAHANN CARROLL, a documentary film based on the secret diary found by her daughter shortly after her death. Diahann Carroll knew every step she took to push back against established norms mattered, and this documentary helps ensure history remembers her not just for her glossy image, but for her complexity. Suzanne Kay co-directed the film, and Serena and Venus Williams executive produced it.
The Long Way Home: Remastered And Expanded will be released on TVOD on October 20th.
Introducing Carl! As the News Editor at Future of the Force, Carl has been an invaluable member of our team since early 2016. His expertise and dedication have made him an integral part of our editorial staff. Beyond his professional role, Carl is a fervent supporter of Liverpool F.C. and an avid follower of pop culture. He has a deep passion for Halloween, Friday the 13th, and the iconic movie franchises Star Wars and Star Trek.
He can be found either at his neighborhood cinema, enjoying the latest releases on the big screen, or at home streaming the newest blockbuster movies.
