While Bulworth only makes sense in the context of American politics, A Friend of the Deceased can only be understood against the background of the manic transition from communism to brutal consumerism in the former Soviet Union. Unlike Bulworth , a comedy about a political insider suffering over his hypocritical compromises, A Friend of the Deceased is a plaintive moral drama about a man who can't adapt to modern capitalism. Dima's darkly comic casualness in contacting the hired killer is the first indication of how anarchic and treacherous the Ukraine has become. Dima shouts at Anatoli. Friendship disappeared with our glorious Soviet past.
Today there is no friendship, only business relations.
So when the killer tells him to deposit a picture of his wife's lover in a post-office box, Anatoli gives the hit man a picture of himself instead, along with the address of his favorite cafe. On the appointed night, however, the cafe closes early. Failing, he hires a second killer to get rid of the first. There's a suspenseful chase scene in the second half of the film, but A Friend of the Deceased is much more a philosophical drama than an action film. Director Vyacheslav Krishtofovich portrays a country full of pathos and moral ambiguity, where the chintzy nouveau riche ignore beggar women on the street, former soldiers find work only in the underworld and the line between passivity and criminality is nearly imperceptible.