Product Details

• Actors: Aleksandr Lazarev, Tetyana Kryvytska Stang Lund, Aleksandr Lazarev Ml., Anzhelika Nevolina, Yelena Korikova
• Directors: Leonid Boyko, Vyacheslav Krishtofovich
• Writers: Andrei Kurkov
• Producers: Jacky Ouaknine, Pierre Rival
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Sony Pictures
• VHS Release Date: December 15, 1998
• Run Time: 100 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 0767800745
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #183,222 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

From The New Yorker

An engagingly laconic film about life in the new, Ronald Lauderized Ukraine. A despondent translator (Alexandre Lazarev) hires a contract killer to put a hit on himself-and then has a change of heart. The film, lovingly shot by Vilen Kaluta ("Burnt by the Sun"), abounds in photogenic tristesse-it's as though a Camus character wandered into a super-capitalist culture where everything depends on the price of oranges. The story's theme is the disappearance of friendship into the "glorious Soviet past," and its replacement by business relationships, but the real pleasure comes from small educational details, such as the revelation that Earl Grey tea is in high demand in Ukraine, along with Pampers. In Russian. -Daphne Merkin
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This film captures the ambience of Kyiv, Ukraine, April 6, 2002

By 

Alex Sydorenko (Memphis, Tenn.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Friend of the Deceased [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Having lived in Kyiv, and knowing it's people, I must say this film captures the city in all it's many moods. Despite the fact that the Kyivites speak Russian throughout the scenes, this is a very Ukrainian movie.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Film, December 28, 2001

By 

Alessandro Bruno (Toronto, Canada) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Friend of the Deceased [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This is really a jewel of a movie. It is set in the Kiev of Post Soviet Ukraine - film is in Russian - and a handsome apparently respectable man finds himself at odds with the free foer all capitalist society that has emerged. His beautiful wife leaves him for someone more ambitious and and financially motivated and as he becomes depressed he gets involved with former scecret agents turned bodyguards and contract killers to ultimately bring his own life to an end. The plot seems certainly sad; however there are touching, comical and - as in any Russian story worth its Borscht - plenty of irony. the character development is excellent and we sympathize without question with the disiullusioned intellectual type whop refuses to budge - or is incapable of taking advantage of the new order. There are lots of beautiful people in the film and Kiev is a prime character in the story, it appears to be a really beautiful city. Ias another reviwer wrote, the film may seem slow to develop but the viewer will become ever more involved in the story.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars There is definately something different about this film, November 17, 2007

By 

Yuri E. Seresin - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Friend of the Deceased [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I first saw this film during its USA theater release, and was immediately struck by it - stunned is more like it. It is a Ukrainian film, but the dialogue is in Russian (just about all educated Ukrainians speak fluent Russian). I found it to be a jewel, full of intense dramatic irony and pathos, with a haunting soundtrack that consisted of a flute accompanied by a piano. On my way out of our local art cinema, I bumped into the film critic for the major newspaper in our state - it was his 4th viewing that week, the only week the film was to run. This guy can count on one hand the number of times he has been driven to view a new release more than twice in a week. I could say much more, but I'll close with my recollection that this film, which involves a planned suicide, is about as powerful an affirmation of life as I have seen in cinema.