In Kiev, Ukraine, the loser Anatoli (Aleksandr Lazarev) is a penniless unemployed translator and his wife is leaving him. When Anatoli meets by chance his former friend Dima (Evgeniy Pashin), he offers one thousand dollars to Anatoli to commit perjury in order that his boss gets the divorce from his wife. Further, he suggests that Anatoli hires the hit man Kostia (Konstantin Kostyshin) to assassin his wife's boyfriend. Anatoli is drunk and accepts the deal. However he regrets and he puts the contract on himself instead.
When Anatoli meets the prostitute Vika, a.k.a. Lena (Tatyana Krivitskaya), he changes his mind and hires the killer Ivan (Serhiy Romaniuk) to protect him. Ivan kills Kostia and Anatoli learns that he was married with Marina (Elena Korikova) and with a baby boy. Now Anatoli feels guilty and seeks out Marina to sympathize with her.
"Priyatel pokoynika" is one of those movies where the viewer fruitlessly expects that something will happen, but it won't. There are many promise premises to be explored but the story unfortunately goes nowhere. My vote is five.
Title (Brazil): "O Amigo do Defunto" ("The Friend of the Defunct")
