Pamfir
Ukraine, France, Poland, Germany, Chile 2022
Dir: Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk
Ukrainian / 106 mins
Released in cinemas 5 May 2023
Available at home 3 June 2023
When reformed smuggler Pamfir returns home to his village on the Ukrainian border after working abroad for several years, he’s determined to earn an honest living and set a good example for his beloved teenage son Nazar. But in a town where corruption runs deep and crime and religion are inextricably linked, his plan is quickly thwarted when Nazar sets fire to the local church in a misguided effort to keep his father at home. To pay for the damage, Pamfir must take on one last job for a crime syndicate operating a risky smuggling venture in a place where all the rules have changed.
Part drama, part thriller, part noir-inflected fairytale, Pamfir is violent, raw and bloody, but also a tender portrait of a family man trying to raise his son well despite his own shady past. Shot in long takes and set amid forests swirling with mist in the run up to the traditional ‘Malanka’ carnival — a wild pagan festival featuring straw costumes, wooden masks and centuries-old rites and traditions — this is a propulsive, genre-defying debut exploring the thin line between good and evil and fate vs free will in our complex modern world.
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“Bold and brave”… “a reminder of how many fairytales are frightening at their core”
“An extraordinarily assured first feature”… “thrillingly unpredictable”… “a real discovery”
“Suspenseful and haunted by Greek tragedy”
— Le Monde
