A young sex worker from Brooklyn gets her chance at a Cinderella story when she meets and impulsively marries the son of an oligarch. Once the news reaches Russia, her fairytale is threatened as his parents set out to get the marriage annulled.
Acting
Mikey Madison's final scene will haunt you for weeks.
Direction
Baker shoots strip clubs with dignity nobody else bothers to find.
Production
Brighton Beach to oligarch mansions — two Americas, zero romance.
Director
Sean Baker
Mikey Madison
Ani
Mark Eydelshteyn
Ivan
Yura Borisov
Igor
Karren Karagulian
Toros
Vache Tovmasyan
Garnik
Luna Sofía Miranda
Lulu
Lindsey Normington
Diamond
Darya Ekamasova
Galina Zakharov
Aleksey Serebryakov
Nikolai Zakharov
Anton Bitter
Tom
Ivy Wolk
Crystal
Vlad Mamai
Aleks
Maria Tichinskaya
Dasha
Paul Weissman
Nick
Emily Weider
Nikki
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Baker cast actual Brighton Beach residents and sex workers as extras, blurring documentary and fiction.
The film's Oscar win for Best Picture marked the first time a movie with explicit sex work depiction took the Academy's top prize — and the backlash proved Baker's point about respectability politics.
US
