The Strait Guys

A dream to link Russia and America beneath the Bering Strait

The Strait Guys follows George, a 76 year old Czech born mining engineer, and his fast talking protégé Scott as they pursue an extraordinary ambition: to connect the United States and Russia through a 100 kilometre train tunnel beneath the Bering Strait. What begins as a seemingly impossible engineering proposal gradually unfolds into a story about persistence, geopolitics, and the enduring power of large scale ideas.

Travelling along the proposed route of the InterContinental Railway through Alaska, across the Bering Strait and onward towards Russia, George and Scott try to persuade governments, corporations and indigenous tribes to support their 100 billion dollar project. For them, this is not only an infrastructure plan. It is a vision of peace, progress and prosperity built on the belief that cooperation between rival nations is still possible.

As they face scepticism, political resistance and daunting practical obstacles, the film explores what stands in the way of connecting two continents that lie so close yet remain profoundly divided. In the shadow of Russia’s attack on Ukraine, the tunnel proposal appears more improbable than ever. Even so, the Strait Guys remain convinced that this bold project could help imagine a different future, one shaped less by conflict and more by connection.