Little Odessa (1994)

Director:

James Gray

Writer:

James Gray (writer)

Release Date:

19 May 1995 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama

Tagline:

Between good and evil and heaven and hell is...

Plot:

This film tells a bitter tale of a dysfunctional family. Joshua, a cold-blooded professional killer...

Plot Keywords:

Dysfunctional Family | Brother | Mother | Abusive Father | Hitman

Awards:

3 wins & 5 nominations

Cast

Tim Roth	...	Joshua Shapira
Edward Furlong	...	Reuben Shapira
Moira Kelly	...	Alla Shustervich
Vanessa Redgrave	...	Irina Shapira
Paul Guilfoyle	...	Boris Volkoff
Natalya Andreychenko	...	Natasha
Maximilian Schell	...	Arkady Shapira
David Vadim	...	Sasha
Mina Bern	...	Grandma Tsilya
Boris McGiver	...	Ivan
Mohammed Ghaffari	...	Pahlevi
Michael Khmurov	...	Yuri
Dmitry Preyers	...	Victor
David Ross	...	Anatoly
Ron Brice	...	Man with one leg

Runtime:

98 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:R | Iceland:16 | Australia:R | South Korea:18 | Finland:K-16 | France:-12 | Germany:16 (bw) | Netherlands:16 | Portugal:M/16 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | UK:15

Filming Locations:

Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Fine Line Features

Trivia:

It took director James Gray two years to get the financing in place to make _Little Odessa (1994)_.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: In the scenes where Mr. Schell is supposedly speaking Russian, his language is unintelligible beyond the simplest words.

Quotes:

Joshua Shapira: [Joshua is about to execute Pahlevi] Hey, do you believe in God?
Pahlevi: [sobbing] Yes!
Joshua Shapira: Good. We'll wait ten seconds and see if he comes to save you.

Movie Connections:

Features Vengeance Valley (1951)

Best I've seen Roth do

I enjoyed the movie. Tim Roth, who is apparently British, sounded to me (a Texan) as a perfect second-generation Russian Jew. He was so coldly efficient in this character that I did not even recognize him as the hapless robber in Pulp Fiction. Kudos also to Moira Kelly, Edward Furlong, and Maximilian Schell. Good direction and photography. The use of the Russian choral music throughout set the mood on medium-creepy, even when that was the only clue. I've never been to Brighton Beach, or even Brooklyn, but the film really brought home the gritty reality of that immigrant community. (I really just mean the day-to-day atmosphere of the place, not the mobster story plastered on it.) Worth checking out if you don't mind a slower, more cerebral sort of hit man movie.