White Nights

The White Nights are a short late spring and early summer period in northern Russia (particularly in St. Petersburg) in the few weeks around the Summer Solstice in June. Owing to the high northern latitude (60 degrees), the sun does not set until after 10PM, and the twilight lasts much longer. Most residences in such northern latitudes have heavy draperies and shades to aid sleep during this period.

White Nights is also a 1985 movie starring Gregory Hines and Mikhail Baryshnikov.

Hines plays an American tap dancer living in the Soviet Union who befriends a Soviet ballet dancer who had defected to the West.

The two pair up after the defector's plane makes a forced landing in Siberia and he is recognized. The defector and Hines are brought to Moscow where the Soviets seek to exploit the (former) defector's talents. After an initial period of racial and artistic friction, the two become fast friends and Hines helps arrange an escape.