Moscow on the Hudson is a 1984 American romantic comedy-drama film, written and directed by Paul Mazursky, starring Robin Williams as a Soviet circus musician who defects while on a visit to the United States.

Vladimir is left with nothing but the clothes on his back, the money in his pocket, and a pair of blue jeans that he had planned to buy for his girlfriend in Moscow.

With the help of a sympathetic immigration attorney and Cuban emigrant, Orlando Ramirez, Vladimir soon adapts to life in the United States.

During a confrontation with a burly man who makes it known that he is also a Russian defector, Vladimir comes to appreciate his good fortune of living in the United States.

After considering many locations for the Moscow portion of the film, Mazursky settled on Munich, based on the flexibility that Bavaria Studios offered him, with full control over an authentic "Eastern European street".

[2] The poster, depicting a bird's eye view of New York, with Moscow and Russia beyond, prompted a lawsuit by artist Saul Steinberg.

Steinberg alleged that the movie poster infringed on the copyright in View of the World from 9th Avenue, his famous cover illustration for a 1976 issue of The New Yorker.

The website's consensus reads: "With Robin Williams' affecting portrayal as a Russian immigrant at the center of its fish-out-of-water story, Moscow on the Hudson soars with an abundance of laughs and heart.

[4] Vincent Canby of The New York Times said that the film "isn't ill conceived; rather, it seems unfinished, not yet thought through", with Canby opining that the scene of Vladimir's defection inside of Bloomingdale's to be the film's funniest; a "tumultuous sequence, in which prissy floorwalkers, members of the Soviet secret police, the store's public-relations personnel, New York City policemen and Federal Bureau of Investigation agents all are working at cross purposes".

[5] Pauline Kael of The New Yorker wrote that it was "a wonderful comedy about a tragedy", and that as "imaginative and mellow, this movie displays Mazursky's distinctive funky lyricism at its best", although "the film's comic rhythm (though not its mood) falters in the last third".