Rootless Hungarian émigré Willie (John Lurie), his pal Eddie (Richard Edson), and visiting sixteen-year-old cousin Eva (Eszter Balint) always manage to make the least of any situation, whether aimlessly traversing the drab interiors and environs of New York City, Cleveland, or an anonymous Florida suburb. With its delicate humor and dramatic nonchalance, Jim Jarmusch's one-of-a-kind minimalist masterpiece, Stranger Than Paradise, forever transformed the landscape of American independent cinema.
Background
In 1982, Jarmusch made a 30-minute film entitled "Stranger Than Paradise", using leftover 35mm film stock from Wim Wenders' "The State of Things". The short version of 'Stranger' won the International Critics Prize in Rotterdam, 1983, and attracted the interest of West German producer Otto Grokenberger, who assisted Jarmusch in finding the means to expand 'Stranger' into a 90-minute feature. The feature version won the Camera D'or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1984 and was voted Best Picture of the Year by the National Society of Film Critics in 1985.