Un ami du défunt

In Kiev, Ukraine, the loser Anatoli (Aleksandr Lazarev) is a penniless unemployed translator and his wife is leaving him. When Anatoli meets by chance his former friend Dima (Evgeniy Pashin), he offers one thousand dollars to Anatoli to commit perjury in order that his boss gets the divorce from his wife. Further, he suggests that Anatoli hires the hit man Kostia (Konstantin Kostyshin) to assassin his wife's boyfriend. Anatoli is drunk and accepts the deal. However he regrets and he puts the contract on himself instead.

When Anatoli meets the prostitute Vika, a.k.a. Lena (Tatyana Krivitskaya), he changes his mind and hires the killer Ivan (Serhiy Romaniuk) to protect him. Ivan kills Kostia and Anatoli learns that he was married with Marina (Elena Korikova) and with a baby boy. Now Anatoli feels guilty and seeks out Marina to sympathize with her.

"Priyatel pokoynika" is one of those movies where the viewer fruitlessly expects that something will happen, but it won't. There are many promise premises to be explored but the story unfortunately goes nowhere. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "O Amigo do Defunto" ("The Friend of the Defunct")

"A Friend of the Deceased" starts as an old tale about a despondent man who takes out a contract on his own life and then renegs. The film is a plodding work with little going for it save the curious plot and interesting twists on the hacked storyline. There's plenty of behind the Iron Curtain-rod contempo symbolism; everyone drinks without regard for time of day; beggars everywhere; somber atmospherics; American money in a Ukraine wallet; and a kind of woebegone milieu not to mention one character's personal commentary about the state of the country. A sober and understated work with an anticlimactic conclusion, "A Friend..." does manage some poignancy and will be of most interest to foreign film buffs, especially those into Russian flicks. (C+)

This movie was a lot of fun. It consisted of all the elements that make for a relaxing evening on the couch, simply being entertained by a good story well told (but only if subtitles don't scare you). The lead character was charming and sincere, the situations he was getting into at his age and in his country were believable, as were his solutions.

The supporting cast helped too. Typecast to a "T", each one of them made us look forward to their next scene. And we weren't disappointed, they were featured when they were needed and fit into the story like the pieces of a puzzle.

And the wonderful location shots. One of our favorite reasons for viewing foreign films is for the locations. Seeing the streets of Paris, Moscow, The Ukraine, wherever the movies take us.

We were happy to see this film sitting on the shelf at the video store and it gives us hope that there will be more like it when we go back.

I was going through my box of old VHS films and this one caught my eye again. It's about Ukrainians going through the post Soviet breakup and the adjustments they were making. Since then, Ukraine has continued to go through hardships including war with Russia. These hardships are nothing new. Ukraine has had a tough time for centuries including war with Poland, Catherine the Great and Soviet genocide.

These have left a lasting scar upon the psyche of the country.

The film's plot is contrived and not meant to be taken too realistically. It's about showing the different characters and the stoic, cynical, confused, and random gestures of kindness in their daily lives. The brutal way that the businessmen speak is common. Some people are amazingly spiritual such as the character Marina who almost glows with a light of love and beauty and the assassin who fishes by a lake. Nearly all the characters are fractured and broken but likable in their own way. Even the brutal businessman who pays Anatoli for his translation services and asks for change for a twenty has a rather amusing side to him if you care to look.

With the controversy in Ukraine, this is a dark, somber and thoughtful film for someone to get a glimpse of these amazing people.

good movie, also very painful for anyone from that region of the world.

i warmly recommend it to americans - try something other than hollywood - it doesn't hurt...