Opening Films

REVIEW BY STEVE RAMOS

FRIEND OF THE DECEASED
CityBeat grade: A.
Welcome to capitalism.

Anatoli (Alexandre Lazarev) is an academic whose university background has become worthless in the new world order of the former Soviet Union. There is no hope for full-time work. So Anatoli strings together odd jobs, including translating English for the Ukraine's new businessmen. His ad exec wife Katia (Angelika Nevolina) is doing a lot better. She has grown accustomed to the new capitilist ways. She has also left Anatoli for another man. Emotionally vacant, Anatoli considers hiring a hit-man to kill his wife. He then considers having the hit-man kill himself. But a new friendship with a perky prostitute (Tatiana Krivitskaia) leads Anatoli to believe that maybe life isn't so bad after all. His problem, it seems, is that it might be too late to cancel the contract killer.

It's been six years since director Viatcheslav Krichtofovitch's last film, the acclaimed 1991 drama, Adam's Rib. A complete collapse of film production in the former Soviet Union forced Krichtofovitch to seek European funding. Friend of the Deceased's subtle brilliance makes the additional wait all the more painful. Krichtofovitch weaves a story that is tragically comic. With its sad sack protaganist, Friend of the Deceased also pokes fun at the political state of a western-ized former Soviet Union. But just because anything is possible doesn't mean that life is better.

Krichtofovitch gets extraordinary performances from his cast, especially Lazarev as the brooding Anatoli. Friend of the Deceased is a quietly, subtle human drama. Its storytelling is also deliberately cautious. Still, Krichtofovitch doesn't waste a single scene. Each moment rings emotionally true. And just when Friend of the Deceased looks to be overwhelmed by its own sense of despair, Krichtofovitch injects some welcome, although bitter, humor. The result is brilliant storytelling. (Rated R.)

CityBeat, Vol. 4, Issue 29; June 11-17, 1998