# Priyatel pokojnika (1997)

### reviewed by
Harvey S. Karten

    A FRIEND OF THE DECEASED

Reviewed by Harvey Karten, Ph.D. Sony Pictures Classics Director: Vyacheslav Krishtofovich Writer: Andrei Kourkov Cast: Alexandre Lazarez, Titiana Krivitska, Eugen Pachin, Constantin Kostychin, Elena Korikova, Angelika Nevolina, Sergiy Romanyuk.

Depending on your views about communism, "A Friend of the Deceased" is either the most reactionary movie since "Starship Troopers" or the most progressive one since "Red Sorghum." Director Vyacheslav Krishtifovich, who filmed the action in Ukraine's touristic capital of Kiev, has a political axe to grind. He may not wholeheartedly support a return to the good old days of Ukraine's provincial role in a firmly communist Soviet Union. But while he appreciates the freedom the new country has since independence from Moscow, he looks back sympathetically to a time that Ukrainians were more warm and neighborly and blames capitalism for a new atmosphere of coldness. It's all business dealings now, he seems to say, not human connection. His theory has pertinence to the countries like the U.S. which have long enjoyed capitalism. It's commonly believed that in poor areas, the residents support one another. They refuse to send their elderly and frail to nursing homes, they sit on stoops and chat the night away. But Krishtofovich is forgetting that in needy neighborhoods, crime is sometimes rampant and social pathologies make their mark in the disproportionate number of the mentally ill. And China, still firmly in the communist camp despite its free-market reforms, is no model of people-to-people cordiality.

Krishtofovich, using a screenplay by Andrei Kourkov, seems eager to display a new Dodge City world in Kiev ruled by high-flying entrepreneurs, the Mob and the black market. At least that's what the press notes indicate. By focusing on a lonely intellectual who seems unable to make it in this brave new world, he wants to portray a society adrift, one in which a new class of losers abounds. Anatoli (Alexandre Lazarev), a nerdy Woody Allen type without that master's sense of humor or irony, had always made his living as a translator for Ukrainian firms who need to deal with those who speak English and French. For reasons not explained, he has fallen on hard times since the silent revolution which has replaced the Iron Curtain with the open door. Why would his country need him in the past but not now? One would think a flourishing business economy could use his talents to an even greater degree.

His wife Katia (Angelika Nevolina) is leaving him for a hipper guy with a fancy red car (as though the wheels were the only reason for her departure). His phone--whose handset is mysterious and inexplicably tied to the unit forcing him to use the speakerphone--rarely rings. He is depressed and, through a friend, Dima (Eugen Pachin), he hires a hit man. The intended victim is not Katia's boyfriend but his own suicidal self. When he meets a hooker, Lena (Tatiana Krivitska), a spirited but unappealing vamp who is attracted to Anatoli, his mood brightens, he wants to call off the hit, but discovers that it's too late. The contract, once agreed to, must be fulfilled. The remainder of the story deals with his efforts to stop his own execution, which involves the hiring of Ivan (Sergiy Romanyuk), a hit man for the hit man.

Lazarez plays the role in a deadpan manner that would not impress W.C. Fields. He is so down-and-out throughout, so phlegmatic and inarticulate, that he seems already to be the titled deceased guy. Only Elena Korkova in the role of Marina, the wife of the contract killer, brings breath to this downer of a film, which fails appropriately to exploit the Kiev milieu and, more important, does not promote the creators' view that Anatoli's problems are the fault of the new capitalism. In Russian with English titles, "A Friend of the Deceased" was exhibited at several film festivals including those at Cannes, Toronto, and Sundance. Rated R. Running time: 100 minutes. (C) Harvey Karten 1998

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