“The starting point was a real encounter with a father whom I met while I was a student at NYU film school,” he said. “I was doing research for my first feature, and I spent lots of time in Brighton Beach. I met this father and son; the father had come all the way from Georgia … Somebody called him at home and said, ‘We saw your son in the streets of Brooklyn and he’s a big-time drug addict. Somebody should save him, otherwise he will die.
Adding to the film’s gritty appeal is a cast of largely non-professional actors. “I don’t remember who,” laughed Koguashvili, “but one of the great American Western directors said, ‘Our cowboys are real cowboys.’ Well, our criminals were real criminals!” “Yeah,” Papamichael added. “Most of our Russian criminals had spent major time in prison. We would always have dinner in this little Uzbek restaurant in Brighton Beach, and when we first went there, they were celebrating. I’m like, ‘What is this celebration for?’ They said, ‘The owner is going tomorrow. He’s going to prison for two years.’ The waitress was crying! So we lived it. We absorbed the whole environment.
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