Pamfir – a film from Ukraine about a strong, rough but decent man who loves his wife and son, and whose dreams collide with the corruption at the heart of a rural village on the border with Romania.
Smuggling across the border with Romania is big business in the village in Ukraine where Pamfir lives with his loving wife and son. It provides the best chance of escaping the emptiness and poverty of rural life – a bit like the smuggling communities along the south coast of England 200 years ago, with people drawn in, in order to survive.
A former smuggler, Pamfir (his nick – name means stone) has been persuaded to live clean and has just returned from working in Poland for a two-week visit to see his beloved son Nazar and his wife Olena, who wastes no time in getting him to recommit to a crime-free life, and to steer clear of smuggling. She wants him to stay and live with his family. “Your money won’t make you a better dad”, she tells him.
His son Nazar is especially joyful to have his father back, but not so happy when his parents join forces to make him sing in the church choir. He hates being placed under the power of the church, having to sing and clear up after the service. His anger and perhaps a misguided attempt to make his father remain in Ukraine, he sets fire to the church. Pamfir feels he has to pay for the damage as the church space is rented. He is also relying on the priest to help him renew his travel papers.
This sets in train a dizzying sequence of events as tempo speeds up and takes the form of a looming tragedy rather than a domestic drama. Pamfir has to pay for the rebuild, but he also dreams of being able to send his son to university. He bemoans his own lack of education. Trying to do the right thing, he takes on one last risky and dangerous smuggling job. He even has to involve his son as he himself is too big to crawl through the tunnel under the border.
Punished for his defiance Pamfir is set upon by a group of goons, controlled by the police, in a violent but convincing fight scene. He survives, and we see him leading the smuggling party, with outsize packs on their backs darting through the forest of beech trees in the swirling mist. And the final scenes of drama are intercut with images of the villagers celebrating the traditional Malanke Carnival – a wild pagan festival with straw costumes, wooden grotesque masks, and plenty of drink – going on at the same time – a highly effective climax.
Pamfir is the story of a rough, defiant, strong, but honest and decent man who in another time and place would be a community leader, colliding with the corrupt, controlling and jealous world of the authorities who control the smuggling industry and who live on a different level than the common villagers. The outdated archaic power and customs of the church are also revealed as increasingly irrelevant to the rural population, especially the youth, though it retains its power over their minds.
The narrative is well paced and beautifully filmed to produce an exciting story of a man with worthy but – in the circumstances – impossible dreams. Without interfering with the drama, there is an obvious symbolism here with the plight of Ukraine, trapped as it mobilises the people in a fight for survival against its powerful imperialist neighbour to the East.
The film is written and directed by Dmytro Sukholytkyy – Sobchuk, with Oleksandr Yatsentyuk in the title role as Pamfir. The film received a standing ovation at its screening during the Directors Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival recently.
PAMFIR is in UK / Irish cinemas 5 May https://www.conic.film/films/pamfir