Dead Man's Pal (1997)
A Ukrainian-French joint project in 1997, based on Andrei Kurkov’s story “Beloved Friend, Buddy of a Dead Man.” The first film of the period of Independent Ukraine nominated for an Oscar. The film, released in 1997, remained one of the most successful domestic films for a long time.
The classic Kiev lazy man (Alexander Lazarev) - educated, stately, with an apartment on Podol, clearly inherited from a nomenklatura grandmother - cannot fit into the new life of the early nineties. More precisely, he doesn’t really want to, because most of his friends have completely mastered the realities of a market economy and are helping their stupid classmate as best they can.
His world breaks down after his wife (Anzhelika Nevolina) leaves him - of course, for her wealthy (and wealthy) husband - and now, out of drunkenness, the hero orders a rival killer. What an interesting game this is: try yourself in a different role, feel like a new person - powerful and successful. True, with a hangover comes repentance, and the customer changes the photo of the victim in the envelope prepared for the killer.
But shifts in consciousness have already taken root in the soul of the hero Lazarev, and he earns his first big money by perjury in court. Life is getting better in a new, surprising role: you can go to a tavern on Andreevsky Spusk and pick up a girl, and reassign the killer to another killer. To take his place in the finale - in a new apartment, with his wife, child and master's slippers.
Film crew:
Stage director: Vyacheslav Krishtofovich
Screenwriter: Andrey Kurkov
Director of photography: Vilen Kalyuta
Production designer: Roman Adamovich
Composer: Vladimir Gronsky
Actors:
Alexander Lazarev (junior) - Anatoly
Anzhelika Nevolina - Katya
Elena Korikova - Marina
Tatiana Krivitskaya - Lena-Vika
Evgeniy Pashin - Dima
Sergey Romanyuk - Ivan
Anatoly Mateshko - Boris
Konstantin Kostyshin - Kostya
Valentina Ilyashenko – barmaid
Rostislav Yankovsky - Igor Lvovich
Alexey Goncharenko - Vadim Semenovich
Shubra Chakraborty - Indian businessman
Elena Stefanskaya - Alice
Boris Zelenetsky - photographer
Tamara Plashenko – judge
Valentina Saltovskaya - beggar old woman
Galina Chernyak, Yulia Volchkova, Alla Titova, Boris Alexandrov, Alyosha Kuznetsov, Lyudmila Travnikova, Svyatoslav Bernatsky, Tatyana Sheliga, Alexander Kushch, Alexey Bogdanovich (Katya's friend), Alexey Zubkov, Leonid Boyko, Elena Korovka, Natalya Tsetsenko, Anton Mukharsky.
The film had considerable success abroad. Distribution rights were acquired by 18 countries. In particular, Sony acquired the film in the USA and Canada, which organized the premiere in 48 cinemas in America. For Hollywood, of course, this is a drop in the ocean - but not for a film from the Dovzhenko film studio, whose products were of little interest even to Ukrainian viewers at that time.
The film received numerous awards at many film festivals:
1997 – Prize for the best performance of a role by a non-professional – Tatyana Krivitskaya at the Stozhary Film Festival
1998 – Golden Aries Award in the Best Director category at the Kinotavr-98 film festival in Sochi
1997 – nomination for the Felix Award for Best European Screenplay
1997 – IFF “Listapad” (Minsk, Belarus) – special prize and diploma For the harmonious unity and artistic integrity of the film
Write in the comments, did you like this once popular film? Or has it lost its relevance for the modern viewer?
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