Klaus Maria Brandauer played a Jewish Immigrant from the Soviet Union but in real life he was born in Bad Aussee, Styria, Austria, and throughout the whole movie he only said a few words in Russian, mostly speaking in english.
This is the second movie that Elya Baskin played in where the main character comes to the United States from the Soviet Union and decide to speak English instead of Russian because they are in America. The other movie was "Moscow On The Hudson(1984)" where Elya Baskin tells Robin Williams that they should speak English now that they are in the Unites States.
Alek in English is Alex, which was Klaus Maria Brandauer name in the movie.
One of the main filming locations for this film was Coney Island, in Brooklyn N.Y.