Natasha
Directed byDavid Bezmozgis
Written byDavid Bezmozgis
Produced byBill Marks
Deborah Marks
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
LanguagesEnglish
Russian
Box office$8,325[1]

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.[2]

Plot

Mark Berman, an idealistic Jewish Canadian teenager in Toronto is seduced into a torrid affair by the mysteriously appearing but extremely ruthless Natasha, 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.[3] 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.[4]

Cast

  • Alex Ozerov as Mark Berman
  • Sasha K. Gordon as Natasha
  • Lola Tash as Jana
  • Aidan Shipley as Rufus
  • Deanna Dezmari as Bella
  • Pavel Tsitrinel as Meyer
  • Mila Kanev as Dora
  • Alla Kadysh as Faina
  • Igor Ovadis as Faina's uncle
  • Sergiy Kotelenets as Gena
  • John Mavro as Daniel
  • Jonathan Purdon as older pool guy
  • Grisha Pasternak as Vadim
  • Joshua Teixeira as kid 1
  • Kylon Howell as kid 2

Release

The film premiered at the Boston Jewish Film Festival in November 2015,[4] and was screened at several other film festivals before going into general commercial release in Canada in May 2016.[5]

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).[6]

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.[7] Based on 6 critics on Metacritic, Natasha has a rank of 76 out of a 100, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[8]

Neil Genzlinger of The New York Times wrote "[the film] creates a disturbing portrait of a girl turned calculating and nihilistic by her upbringing, and there is no coyness here".[9]

Peter Howell of Toronto Star had praised the film, saying that "[it] succeeds because of its haunting lead performances".[10]

Variety's Jessica Kiang wrote "David Bezmozgis adapts his own short story into an impressively controlled coming of age tale animated by a cunning central performance".[11]

According to Tatiana Craine of The Village Voice, "Natasha is as beguiling and confounding as its title character".[12]

Tomris Laffly of RogerEbert.com said that "[the director] manages to summon something richer out of this tale you might temporarily feel you've been told before".[13]

References

  1. ↑ "Natasha". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved August 8, 2021.
  2. ↑ Scheck, Frank (January 26, 2016). "'Natasha': Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved August 8, 2021.
  3. ↑ Taylor, Kate (May 6, 2016). "Natasha: Coming-of-age story explores tragedy with quiet intelligence". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved August 8, 2021.
  4. 1 2 Trahan, Erin (November 2, 2015). "Boston Jewish Film Festival's New Leader Assembles Biggest Program To Date". WBUR-FM. Retrieved August 8, 2021.
  5. ↑ Mack, Adrian (May 6, 2016). "Some frank talk from Natasha director David Bezmozgis". The Georgia Straight. Retrieved August 8, 2021.
  6. ↑ Wilner, Norman (January 17, 2017). "The Canadian Screen Awards nominations are out!". Now. Retrieved August 8, 2021.
  7. ↑ "Natasha (2015)". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved August 8, 2021.
  8. ↑ "Natasha (2017)". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved August 8, 2021.
  9. ↑ Genzlinger, Neil (April 27, 2017). "Review: In the Disturbing 'Natasha', Sex and Manipulation". The New York Times. Retrieved August 8, 2021.
  10. ↑ Howell, Peter (May 5, 2016). "Reel Brief: Mini reviews of Disorder, The Meddler, Mothers and Daughters and Natasha, plus Deadpool on DVD". Toronto Star. Retrieved April 8, 2021.
  11. ↑ Kiang, Jessica (May 7, 2017). "Film Review: 'Natasha'". Variety.
  12. ↑ Craine, Tatiana (April 26, 2017). "David Bezmozgis's Naturalistic Teen Drama 'Natasha' Touchingly Plumbs the Immigrant Experience". The Village Voice. Retrieved August 8, 2021.
  13. ↑ Laffly, Tomris (April 28, 2017). "Natasha". RogerEbert.com. Retrieved August 8, 2021.
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