Can Nadia Romanov and her father, Sergei, escape a dangerous cartel with $40 million cash and drugs they stole from a delivery truck? You’ll have to see “Nadia’s Request”, a movie filmed in Monroe, to find out.
In the battle for survival, Nadia uses her seductive charms to convince her boyfriend, Vinny Pelligrini, to kill for her, so she and Vinny can flee the country with their fortune. The cast includes Joey Ambrosini, a Monroe native with a growing resume in the film industry.
“I play Ricky Trambino. Ricky is Vinny’s sorta right-hand man when it comes to finding the map leading to the money,” Ambrosini said of his role. “It was fun because my character sort of tries to come off as this serious guy when he’s honestly a dumbass for the most part. I was able to have some fun with the dialogue.”
“This movie is another special piece of history for films shot in the Nutmeg State,” Ambrosini added. “Needless to say it, but I truly cannot get enough of bringing these projects to my hometown.”
Dana Wine, who is the director and stars in the lead role as Nadia, wrote the screenplay for the story by Pauly Popolizio. She said the genre is drama/suspense with some humor sprinkled in.
“When I put the movie to paper based on Pauly Popolizio’s story, I thought a splash of humor would make the narrative less heavy,” Wine said. “In real life, I add humor even to bad moments to soften the blow.”
Executive directors include Wine, Popolizio and June Hargrove and the producers are Ambrosini and Robert Miano.
The lead actors are Miano, best known for the role of Sonny Red in “Donnie Brasco”, stars as Sergei Romanov, Wine is Nadia Romanov, Popolizio is Vinny Pelligrini, Ambrosini is Ricky Trambino, Kent Williams is Anton Bates, Dustin Teuber is Victor Andreev, Javier Hernandez is Hector Diaz, and Hensel Henriquez Taveras, who came in second place in the Mr. Dominican Republic 2024 contest, plays the role of Carlos Salvador.
Lead supporting roles include Ericka Evans as Anna Amy Metcalf, Randy Borruso as Detective Sampson Bartolli, June Hargrove as Big Mike, Sharon Martinez as investigator Marcella Guerra, and Greg Nutcher as Captain Lawerence Cato.
“Special thanks to Tony Spera, who had a supporting role and was incredible,” Wine said.
Wine said several of the locations included houses in Monroe, including some of the cast members homes.
“We had a wonderful cast/crew and community involvement, including Robert Miano,” Wine said. “Ninety-nine percent of the movie was filmed in Connecticut. We invite you to see the movie magic that happens when a community opens their homes, businesses, and even themselves as artists, and holds a belief in a small film crew that gave us Dumbo’s feather, allowing us to believe in ourselves and to move mountains. That beauty alone is worth seeing the movie — and it delivers!”
Wine said the creators of “Nadia’s Request” will reach out to Lionsgate for distribution of the film and, if that is doesn’t happen, they will pursue a streaming service such as Amazon, Netflix or Tubi.
“A full feature can take six months to a year to edit,” she said. “It is not an easy task.”
“This whole thing has been a journey for me and of course making portions of it in my hometown makes it very extra special,” Ambrosini said of ‘Nadia’s Request’. “Having Connecticut talent will help promote this movie.”
Popolizio said viewers will enjoy seeing an accomplished pro like Miano in the film.
Previous projects
Wine, Popolizio and Ambrosini have been involved in others projects before and shared some of their favorite ones.
“I think the movie I am most proud of, aside from ‘Nadia’s Request’, was ‘Code13 Unreadable,'” said Wine. “The directors and producers are all State Troopers from Lowell, so I had to do a 150-hour police training for that movie. To be sure, we looked legit. I played one of the lead roles as Detective Amy Rodriquez.”
“I love police roles, as there is most often action, sarcasm and nontraditional female roles, all my favs,” she added. “And a long time ago, Pauly and I worked on a web series called ‘Fedoras,'” she said of another venture.
“Making Bones” is a film Popolizio and Ambrosini are both proud to have been a part of.
“Joey and I worked on ‘Making Bones’, where I play the role of a bar manager,” Popolizio said. “Dana and I worked on ‘The Fedoras’, web series.”
“‘Making Bones’, which is a movie I made a year or so ago,” Ambrosini said of his favorite movie. “Pauly was in the movie and it was shot in Monroe. Again, being able to shoot in my hometown is very important to me, and we also had Tony Spera in this movie, which was an honor.”
“Also, an interesting fact, Randy Borruso, who played in Joey’s movie ‘Making Bones’, which is an incredible short I highly recommend watching, also plays Detective Bartolli and is our amazing DP,” Wine said of ‘Nadia’s Request’. “We have an amazing director of sound, Sergio Desencios. I feel that behind the camera people do not get enough recognition and they make it all happen.”
Of “Nadia’s Request” Wine said, “we hope this movie is hugely successful and brings more films to Connecticut. We want to make this tiny state proud and thank such an amazing state for its involvement and community outreach to make this film possible.”
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