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DEJA VU

Portrait

Goodbye cold capitalist Prohibition-era Chicago, hello sunny socialist Odessa! Hitman Johnny Pollack has a contract from the Chicago mob to take out a renegade gangster who’s run off to his hometown – the Odessa of Isaac Babel and Mishka Yaponchik, a true melting pot of different cultures. Unfortunately for Johnny, things work a little differently in the USSR than American made-men are used to. Privacy is a foreign concept and life is loud and colourful. Real-life Polish socialism itself wouldn’t survive long enough to see the premiere of this Soviet-Polish co-production, but the film remains a pyrotechnic display of film quotes, historical references, national stereotypes and occasional slapstick that unexpectedly manages to inspire reflection along the way.
POL, USSR 1988 / 113 min
Language: Polish, Russian, Armenian, English
Director: Juliusz Machulski
  • Screenplay: Juliusz Machulski,Aleksandr Borodiański
  • Cinematographer: Janusz Gauer
  • Editor: Mirosława Garlicka
  • Music: Krzesimir Dębski
  • Sound: Mirosław Dobek
  • Cast: Galina Pietrowa,Nikołaj Karaczencow,Władimir Gołowin
  • Producer: Juliusz Machulski
Goodbye cold capitalist Prohibition-era Chicago, hello sunny socialist Odessa! Hitman Johnny Pollack has a contract from the Chicago mob to take out a renegade gangster who’s run off to his hometown – the Odessa of Isaac Babel and Mishka Yaponchik, a true melting pot of different cultures. Unfortunately for Johnny, things work a little differently in the USSR than American made-men are used to. Privacy is a foreign concept and life is loud and colourful. Real-life Polish socialism itself wouldn’t survive long enough to see the premiere of this Soviet-Polish co-production, but the film remains a pyrotechnic display of film quotes, historical references, national stereotypes and occasional slapstick that unexpectedly manages to inspire reflection along the way.
  • Screenplay: Juliusz Machulski,Aleksandr Borodiański
  • Cinematographer: Janusz Gauer
  • Editor: Mirosława Garlicka
  • Music: Krzesimir Dębski
  • Sound: Mirosław Dobek
  • Cast: Galina Pietrowa,Nikołaj Karaczencow,Władimir Gołowin
  • Producer: Juliusz Machulski