Natasha

[projekktor id=’23992′]

Natasha is a Canadian drama written and directed by David Bezmozgis (Victoria Day). The film stars Alex Ozerov, Sasha K. Gordon, Deanna Dezmari, Genadijs Dolganovs, Igor Ovadis, and Aiden Shipley.

Natasha takes place over the course of one summer. It is the story of Mark Berman, 16, the son of Russian- Jewish immigrants living in the suburbs north of Toronto. When his uncle enters into an arranged marriage with woman from Moscow, the woman arrives in Canada with her fourteen year-old daughter, Natasha. Mark, a slacker, is conscripted by his parents to take responsibility for the strange girl. He learns that, in Moscow, she’d led a troubled and promiscuous life. A secret and forbidden romance begins between the two of them that has bizarre and tragic consequences for everyone involved.

Bezmozgis based the film on his own published short story but made some artistic changes to it when adapting it for the screen. “Those familiar with the short story will quickly notice the main way in which the movie departs from the book: whereas the short story was set in the 1990s, the movie takes place in the present day. And though I am the original writer of the story and also the one who adapted it for the screen, I made the decision to update the story, as it were, as the film’s director. Bringing the action into the present day—other than providing certain production benefits (dispensing with costly and niggling period issues)—allows the story to become more inherently filmic.”

Natasha is rated 18A.