Deja Vu (1988 film)

Déjà Vu
Directed by Juliusz Machulski
Written by Alexander Borodyansky, Juliusz Machulski
Starring Jerzy Stuhr
Nikolai Karachentsov
Release dates
 November 22, 1988
Running time
 104 min.
Language Russian

Déjà Vu is a 1988 Soviet-Polish comedy thriller that takes place in Soviet Odessa in 1925 and spoofs a lot of gangster films.

Plot

The plot takes place in 1925. One of Chicago mobsters Mik Nich (born as Mikita Nechyporuk) flees to Soviet Odessa to escape the revenge of other mobsters. Mob leaders send the best hit-man Johnny Pollack to Odessa. The killer disguises himself as an American entomology professor who wants to visit the grave of his father in Odessa.

In search of his victim, Pollack gets into the most unbelievable situations arising from the peculiarities of the city of Odessa, as well as from mad historical era. Being the first passenger of the ship voyage New York-Odessa, he is assigned to be accompanied by the Komsomol guide Glushko and is besieged by pioneers and journalists. Jumping from the train and hitting his head, Pollack forgets what he is actually doing there (retrograde amnesia), and tries to live up to his cover as an honest professor. Nechyporuk, in turn, learns about the arrival of the killer and is trying to kill him. Pollack experiences several periods of regain and loss of memory (a periodical Déjà vu) while trying to track down Nechyporuk. Finally, Nechyporuk is arrested by Soviet authorities on an unrelated charge and sent to jail. Pollack, having lost the rest of his sanity, ends up in a mental hospital.

Cultural references

At one point, as Pollack chases Nechyporuk through the city, both accidentally take part in the filming of the famous Odessa Steps sequence from Battleship Potemkin.

Cast

External links