The Hungry Ghosts is a 2009

2009 in film

The year 2009 saw the release of many films. Seven made the top 50 list of highest-grossing films, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that as of this year, their Best Picture category would consist of ten nominees, rather than five .- Highest-grossing films :Please note...

 American

Cinema of the United States

The cinema of the United States, also known as Hollywood, has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. Its history is sometimes separated into four main periods: the silent film era, classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period...

 dramatic film written and directed by Michael Imperioli

Michael Imperioli

James Michael Imperioli , commonly known as Michael Imperioli, is an American actor and television writer. He is perhaps best known for his role as Christopher Moltisanti on The Sopranos for which he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2004. He also...

. The film marked the directorial debut of Imperioli.

Plot

Matthew (Emory Cohen) is a teenage boy in New York who has therapy together with his father because of their troubled communication. The boy runs away after a session. His mother is worried but his father is not. Matthew stays in a park at night, where he is picked up by a couple. They give him alcohol and drugs, after which the woman has sex with Matthew while the man watches.

Nadia (Aunjanue Ellis) abandons the place where she lives. She has a meal on the stairs of a house. The woman living there tells her to leave, but Nadia refuses. The woman throws a bucket of water over her, after which Nadia beats her.

Cast

• Steve Schirripa.....Frank
• Sharon Angela.....Angela
• Emory Cohen.....Matthew
• Aunjanue Ellis.....Nadia
• Nick Sandow.....Gus
• Ajay Naidu
  Ajay Naidu
  Ajay Kalahastri Naidu is an American actor.Naidu was born in Evanston, Illinois He attended Evanston Township High School. As an actor, he trained with the American Repertory Theater's Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard University.His first professional acting job was the film ...
  
  .....Laurence
• Sondra James.....Lucy
• Jerry Grayson.....Jerry
• Bess Rous.....Lisette

Production notes

In an interview with MovieMaker Magazine, Imperioli said he used techniques from John Cassavetes

John Cassavetes

John Nicholas Cassavetes was an American actor, screenwriter and filmmaker. He acted in many Hollywood films, notably Rosemary's Baby and The Dirty Dozen...

, his favorite filmmaker, in creating The Hungry Ghosts.

Although Imperioli did not appear in the film, he recruited four castmates that he had previously worked together on, from the HBO television series, The Sopranos

The Sopranos

The Sopranos is an American television drama series created by David Chase that revolves around the New Jersey-based Italian-American mobster Tony Soprano and the difficulties he faces as he tries to balance the often conflicting requirements of his home life and the criminal organization he heads...

. The castmates were Schirripa, Angela, Ventimiglia and Curatola.