Legacy Report · October 9
·
2013
The Saratov Approach
The inspirational true story
The inspirational true story
For more than a decade, The Saratov Approach has continued to reach audiences through theaters, home video, streaming platforms, international distribution, and community screenings. What began as an independent film about two kidnapped missionaries became one of the most influential and enduring faith-based films of its generation.
Rotten Tomatoes 67% audience score · Letterboxd 3.3/5
Thousands of audience reviews. Inspiring conversations that continue today.
Winner, Utah Film Awards. Best Picture. Best Director. Best Cinematography. Best Editor.
Played in more than 150 theaters across the United States with an estimated attendance of 250,000, the fastest LDS film ever to reach $1 million at the box office.
Three years on Netflix and more than a decade on Prime Video, alongside Tubi, Living Scriptures, Apple TV, YouTube, and over 100,000 DVDs sold worldwide.
Distributed across Europe, South America, and the Middle East, with tens of thousands more reached each year through ongoing church, mission, and community screenings.
On March 18, 1998, Elders Travis Tuttle and Andrew Propst, twenty-year-old missionaries serving in Saratov, Russia, arrived at an apartment for what they believed was a teaching appointment. Instead they were ambushed, beaten, bound, and driven to a shed outside the city, where they were handcuffed to a radiator and held for five days while their captors demanded a $300,000 ransom from the church. The ransom was never paid.
What happened inside that shed became the heart of the story. The two young men prayed constantly, befriended the younger of their captors, and looked for every chance to teach. At one point Propst worked free of his handcuffs and the two planned to fight their way out, then stood down, feeling they had come to Russia to serve its people, not to harm them. On the fifth day their captors drove them into the countryside and, as the missionaries braced for execution, simply removed the handcuffs and left. The two fell to their knees in the snow to pray. Both finished their missions in England, and fifteen years later they helped bring the story to the screen, saying simply, “We hold no grudges.”
From theaters to streaming, Saratov continues to find new audiences more than a decade later. A story that remains relevant. A message that endures.
We are grateful for your partnership as we continue creating films that inspire, uplift, and bring light to the world. Together, we can help them see.