FINAL DANCE is based upon the award-winning play COULDN'T WE BE by Vladimir Milman. Director Frank Caruso and playwright Vladimir Milman wrote the screenplay.

Julia is a beautiful nineteen-year-old dance student. Vikka is a forty-year-old Russian immigrant. They meet in a restaurant after Vikka asks to join Julia and her friend who are on their way to the dance studio. In their brief conversation he learns that they are dance students. Julia is fascinated by this stranger and wants to continue to talk to him, but her friend is nervous and convinces Julia to leave with her. Julia reluctantly does so. She is happy when Vikka tracks her down at the dance studio. He is obsessed with her, and she becomes obsessed with him.

So obsessed is Julia with Vikka that she tricks him into coming to her home where she lives with her parents. She convinces him to stay there. Julia's mother is reluctant to have him stay, but Julia's father trusts his gut feeling that Vikka is a decent man.

Julia learns that Vikka was once a great actor and dancer in Russia. He left Russia to find fame and fortune in America. Instead he found failure, and ended up being homeless. His passion for dance is still strong. Julia convinces him to help her with an upcoming dance competition.

Anyone used to Hollywood romantic films, in which everything is clearly explained, will find FINAL DANCE disturbing. I did so at first because I forgot that FINAL DANCE is an art film. In thinking about the film afterwards, I enjoyed coming up with my own conclusions about the characters and events based upon the clues given in the film. I found doing so fun, and intellectually challenging. I want to see this film again to pick up clues I may have missed.

All the actors are convincing in their roles. You would never know that Evgenia Milmana (Julia) and Srdjan Nicolic (Vikka) are not professional dancers.

If you are the average person who likes others to do the thinking and needs to have everything clearly explained, then do not go to see FINAL DANCE. However, if you enjoy thinking for yourself and are happy to come to your own conclusions when things are ambiguous, then you will enjoy FINAL DANCE and may want to see it more than once.

Final Dance is a touching love story that ends in heartbreak for two people who were meant to meet, meant to love, but never meant to stay together. A love of dance originally brings Vikka and Julia together, but as their feelings for each other deepen, the 20-year age difference between them slowly begins to tear them apart.

Julia is a beautiful young girl who has always felt alone. Her compassion for Vikka, a homeless ex-actor/dancer, compels her to invite him to her home. Their shared love of dance brings them closer, and as the connection they make intensifies, the obstacles against a lasting relationship become glaringly obvious.

Torn by her feelings for Vikka but believing she has to let him go, Julia loses control. Her cutting remarks to Vikka send him away. Unable to take back her words and unable to find Vikka, Julia is hysterical when she realizes she's lost him forever.

Final Dance will move you in ways no other love story can. Its tour de force is in not revealing the end and letting the viewer decide whether or not Vikka jumped off that bridge.

Veteran screenwriter,producer and director FRANK CARUSO explores the complexities of the human spirit in his soulful adaptation of the Canadian stage play FINAL DANCE by Vladimir Milman . A successful collaboration between the two talents has brought to the screen one of the most unique and heart-wrenching tales of unrequited love this side of anywhere.

It brings together Julia (Evgenia Milman),a 19 year old dance student,and Vikka (Srdjan Nikolic), a 40 year old Russian dancer/actor , now a homeless immigrant struggling to find his way.They meet in a cafe and are connected by the truths that they are both " lonely and in love with dance" and are , at the same time,so unique that they are alienated and friendless.They both value the peace of silence, and Julia likens their world switching on a lamp in the darkness : " You get this world within the world of the night." Nikko confesses " I get warmth from your light " and in their separate world they form a deep bond.

An unlikely relationship develops and Julia brings Vikka home to meet her parents. Ultimately ,her parents are won over by this older man's goodness and honesty.Vikka recognizes the talents of Julia as an actress who dances from the energy within her soul. He encourages her to improve her technique and helps her win a dance competition . In the aftermath of that success , Julia confesses her love as does Vikka himself. But he gently takes her hands from the side of his face , too aware of the distance between them which age brings. Offended, Julia rebukes her friend and in doing so,rekindles a long simmering self doubt within him.

Caruso is extremely deft at keeping things moving through what is an intense examination of loneliness and unfulfilled passions. His direction is masterful and the actors , notably Milman and Nikolic are superb throughout. The Look of the film ( Jason Guerriere on camera and editing )is delicate and inspired , as bittersweet as the realization that in life , beauty moves and changes, waxes and wanes , as do we all. We know this, but the film opens up that truth for us again and leaves us deeply moved.