Lana's Rain Movie Post Card

All in all, this was a great experience. The movie itself was top notch considering this is the first starring role for the lead actress and the film budget was under a quarter of a million dollars. The film somehow managed to capture the action of a big Hollywood flick while retaining the "edginess" of an independent film. Without giving away too much of the storyline, I would like to say that I am particularly impressed with the love interest and supporting actor role being fulfilled by an Asian-American, breaking the stereotypical portrayal of Asian males as the martial arts superhero or the vilified gangster. The role of Julian, played by Luoyong Wang is one of a talented aspiring artist whose kindness and good nature captured the heart of the main character Lana. Despite, the language, racial and situational barriers, somehow love triumphed, even if it was for only one glorious chance moment.

Julian - Louyong Wang

Although most of the film was shot in Chicago with the big city providing most of the backdrop for the story, it also managed to capture the feel of a foreign film with a good portion of the dialog being spoken in Croatian and subtitled in English. You really get the feel of Lana's dream, starting out not being able to speak two words of English, wanting to learn the language, start a job, have friends and learning to drive a car and having that dream run straight into the reality of barely having a place to stay money to eat and a brother who has a radically different dream and drags her down his dark path. Being a native of the city myself, it was cool to have all those flashes of recognition with some of the locations, like the Renaissance Hotel which I happen to live right next to.

There are of course other locations, in the seedier parts of town that I have never seen before which in a way amazes me to think of how I could live in this city my entire life and just have certain parts of it completely invisible to me. Granted some of the locations and situations therein may have been embellished in the movie for dramatic effect but damn, am I that sheltered that the "Red Light District" part of town filled with seedy adult bookstores, peep shows and streetwalkers went totally over my head?

Of course, the coolest part of the whole deal was that this is the World Premier, meaning a large part of the cast and crew including the writer/director Michel Ojeda and the lead actor and actress, Darko played by Nikolai Stoilov and Lana played by Oksana Orlenko who won the Milan Film Festival's Best Actress Award for this role. They came out after the movie to answer questions. Of course I broke the ice and busted out the first question about the budget of the film which started at $220,000.00 if I recall correctly with some additional money coming in from some of the stakeholders of this film. It's amazing how such a high quality film could be made for the price of a nice suburban house or an exotic sports car. Compare this to some of the multi-million dollar Hollywood productions that can't even tell a decent story. It's a testament that the movie was indeed a labor of love to all involved.

I also had a chance to get my Ticket Stub autographed Nikolai and Oksana. They both put in stellar performances. It was an experience to say the least to watch someone on film and moments later meeting them face-to-face. Nikolai looked almost exactly as he did in the film, sans the eye patch and the makeup scars of course, although he did seem taller on-screen when I was in fact taller than him in real life. (The egotist in my just had to rub that one in, sorry Nikolai) ;)

Darko - Nikolai Stoilov

Oksana on the hand, I'm saying damn and I do mean DAMN. She is one hot female. Although she was pretty hot in the movie, in most of the scenes she was portrayed as an penniless immigrant with a Plain-Jane hairstyle and the mousiest of clothing. She did have her glamour moments in-film however but I don't want to give away too many plot elements. I've done enough damage as is. ;) At the Premier however was this statuesque blonde goddess that looked like she could have been Lana's supermodel twin sister separated at birth. Did I mention that she was hot? Have mercy, I'm just a mere mortal. ;)

Lana - Oksana Orlenko

Oksana @ the Milan Film Festival - Tinseltownonline.com

Anyway, I don't think even these pictures do her justice compared to what I have seen of her. She was all decked out in her clubbing gear with a black top, black leather pants and body glitter. (I wonder if it was flavored) *Rawr* Ahem, anyhow yeah she had it going on. I on the other had was a speechless idiot, not that she would go out with the likes of me. I mean this is real-life and not the movies after all... =p Woah, look at the time. I guess I should like sleep and stuff. But first some scans of my memorabilia...