Natasha (2015 film)

Natasha is a Canadian drama film, which premiered in 2015 before being released in Canada in 2016 and in the United States in 2017. The film was written and directed by David Bezmozgis, based on the title story from his 2004 short story collection Natasha and Other Stories.[1]

Natasha
Directed byDavid Bezmozgis
Produced byBill Marks
Deborah Marks
Written byDavid Bezmozgis
StarringAlex Ozerov
Sasha K. Gordon
Aidan Shipley
Lola Tash
Deanna Dezmari
CinematographyGuy Godfree
Edited byMichelle Szemberg
Production
company
Natasha Films
Distributed byMongrel Media
Release date
  • November 7, 2015 (2015-11-07) (BJFF)
Running time
93 minutes
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish
Russian

Plot

Mark Berman (Alex Ozerov), an idealistic Jewish Canadian teenager in Toronto is seduced into a torrid affair by the mysteriously appearing but extremely ruthless Natasha (Sasha K. Gordon), the daughter of his uncle Fima's new Russian mail-order bride who has been living a double life as a sex worker since childhood.[2] Although the original short story took place in the 1980s, for the film Bezmozgis updated the temporal setting to the present day in order to explore the impact of contemporary technology, such as the internet, on the story.[3]

Release

The film premiered at the Boston Jewish Film Festival in November 2015,[3] and was screened at several other film festivals before going into general commercial release in Canada in May 2016.[4]

Awards

The film garnered two Canadian Screen Award nominations at the 5th Canadian Screen Awards in 2017, for Best Actress (Gordon) and Best Adapted Screenplay (Bezmozgis).[5]

Reception

Natasha scored an "Extremely Fresh" rating of 100% based on 11 critical reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, with an average rating of 7.21/10.[6] Canadian newspaper, The Globe and Mail, gave the film a score of 3/4.

References
  1. "'Natasha': Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter, January 26, 2016.
  2. "Natasha: Coming-of-age story explores tragedy with quiet intelligence". The Globe and Mail, May 6, 2016.
  3. "Boston Jewish Film Festival's New Leader Assembles Biggest Program To Date". WBUR-FM, November 2, 2015.
  4. "Some frank talk from Natasha director David Bezmozgis". The Georgia Straight, May 6, 2016.
  5. "The Canadian Screen Awards nominations are out!". Now, January 17, 2017.
  6. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/natasha_2015


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