A Friend of the Deceased / Pryiatel nebizhchyka

The protagonist of the film, Anatolii, has been left by his wife. It’s the 1990s, and while everyone around him is rushing to make “easy” money in the era of “wild capitalism,” Anatolii struggles to fit into the chaos surrounding him. Neither his job as a translator nor his education seems useful. Feeling obsolete, Anatolii hires a contract killer to order his own death. This impulsive step leads to a series of strange coincidences that eventually bring the protagonist into contact with two very different women — a young prostitute and a lonely widow, whose husband died because of Anatolii.

A Friend of the Deceased is an adaptation of Andrii Kurkov’s story Dear Friend, The Friend of the Deceased, created as a joint Ukrainian-French co-production. Interestingly, the French side, specifically the Fund at CNC dedicated to cooperation with Eastern and Central Europe, pioneered the project. With their support, Viacheslav Kryshtofovych managed to create a film that is both a symptomatic portrayal of the Ukrainian 90s and a universal story about the so-called obsolete person.

At the same time, A Friend of the Deceased is also a declaration of love to Kyiv. The Ukrainian capital becomes a full-fledged character in the film, portrayed by Kryshtofovych in three different ways. It showcases the modern city with new posh places, the slowly disappearing Old Kyiv, and the city’s residential areas literally ballooning before our eyes.

A Friend of the Deceased remains one of the most successful Ukrainian films to date. It was released in theaters in 18 countries worldwide. Sony acquired distribution rights in the USA and Canada, and in Ukraine, Kryshtofovych’s film became the first Ukrainian movie nominated for an Oscar. Meanwhile, the film’s screenwriter, Andrii Kurkov, was among the nominees for the European Film Academy’s Felix award.