August // 2026
John Turturro works the subways — and all over New York: The filming locations of The Only Living Pickpocket in New York
The Only Living Pickpocket in New York
"It was all location shooting. There were days we rode the subway around and just shot the movie." That is how writer/director Noah Segan described making The Only Living Pickpocket in New York — a film that was shot on the actual New York City subway, on Pell Street, and at many other locations in New York City.
The Only Living Pickpocket in New York is an unapologetic love letter to a city — filled with locations and characters that evoke its rich history, documenting the passage of time while exploring what made its past eras so great.
Written and directed by Segan in his feature directorial debut, and starring John Turturro alongside Giancarlo Esposito, Steve Buscemi, Tatiana Maslany and Jamie Lee Curtis.
Harry Lehman is a career pickpocket who has worked the streets and subways of New York since the 1980s. By day, he nimbly relieves unsuspecting New Yorkers of their valuables. By night, he cares for his ailing wife, Rosie, in their modest Bronx apartment. When Harry unwittingly steals a USB stick belonging to a crypto crime family, he has to scour all five boroughs to get it back before they destroy everything he has.
New York subway and 46th Street
The New York City subway is the film's most sustained location — because it is where Harry works. Segan and his crew simply got on and started filming. No permits, no cleared carriages.
In the summer of 2025, the production filmed on 46th Street in New York — with a notice posted right off the 46th Street 7 stop letting commuters know there was a chance they would be seen or heard on film. That small, honest sign is the production philosophy in miniature. No elaborate closures. No permission for every corner. Just a camera on a subway platform and New York going about its business around it.
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China Town and The Bronx
A scene in which Harry walks the streets of the city was filmed on Pell Street in Manhattan — the narrow, historically dense street in Chinatown that runs between the Bowery and Mott Street.
In an interview with thefilmstage.com, Segan was explicit about what he was looking for in each location. "I was looking for something that felt like recognition to me. That was going up to the neighborhood in the Bronx where my grandfather grew up, which is not far from Arthur Avenue." The neighbourhood around Arthur Avenue provided the domestic world of Harry and Rosie's modest apartment.
Segan used the locations of his own life to build Harry's world.
The Only Living Pickpocket in New York premiered at Sundance on January 27, 2026, had its international premiere at the Berlin Film Festival on February 20, and opens in cinemas from October 23, 2026.
SOURCE
thefilmstage.com // sceen-it.com
CREDITS
Sony Pictures Classics, MRC Film, T-Street
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