Vyacheslav Kristofovich
France/Ukraine
Vyacheslav Kristofovich is highly regarded in Russian cinema as a 'woman's director' whose films transcend melodrama to reach a broad commercial audience.
A Lonely Woman Seeking a Companion, a hit at the 1987 Moscow festival, helped to set new standards of production practice during the Gorbachev era. Adam's Rib, another Mosfilm production based on a popular novel, introduced the director to Western audiences when it was invited to the 1991 Directors' Fortnight. It featured the talented Inna Cherikova in a memorable performance as one of four women in a family, all of whom are unlucky in love, but all still waiting for the right man to come along.
Now back in his native Ukraine with the Dovzhenko Studios as his produc-tion base, Kristofovich returns to the Directors' Fortnight with Priatiel pakoi-nika (or Un ami du defunt/A Friend of the Deceased [the direct translation of the Ukrainian title] as the French/English titles read). Adapted from a Maupassant story, it's a tragi-comedy about a man who has hired someone to kill him, then changes his mind and has to find the would-be killer in order to change his mind. If that sounds familiar, then what was good for Aki Kaurismaeki (I Hired a Contract Killer) in his first English-language production transposed easily to Kiev and an Ukrainian milieu in the hands of able screenwriter Andrei Kurkov.
Priatiel pakoinika stars popular actor Alexander Lazarev in te lead role, was photographed by top Ukrainian cameraman Vilen Kalouta, and was co-produced by Pierre Rival of Compagnie Est Ouest (the executive producer on Pavel Lungin's Taxi Blues). Ron Holloway
Prod co: Compagnie des Films, Compagnie Est Ouest, Studio National Dovzhenko, Studios Kazakhstan Almanova
Prods: Nikola Mashenko, Jacky Ouaknine, Pierre Rival
Dir: Vyacheslav Krishtofovich
Scr: Andrei Kurkov
Ph: Vilen Kolouta
Art dir: R Adamovich Ed: Elvira Sumovskaya
Mus: Vladimir Gronski
Cast: Alexander Lazerev, Evgeny Pashin, Tatiana Krivitskaya
Running time: 100 mins
Int sales: Celluloid Dreams
