Pamfir

Set in the foreboding, vividly realized environs of a rural village in Ukraine, this visually bold feature debut from Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk follows the tragic downward spiral of a devoted family man and former smuggler, Leonid (Oleksandr Yatsentyuk), who has returned home after working abroad. After enlisting his brother in a plan to resume his former illegal activities to help support his wife and devoted teenage son, Leonid bumps up against the town’s frightening authority figures, both lawmen and organized criminals, and finds that freedom isn’t easily won. With its circuitous tracking shots of interiors and countryside alike and its compositionally dense tableaux, Pamfir is a work of rigor and ambition that offers one memorable standalone image after another even as it builds steadily in power toward a violent resolution set at the town’s annual Carnival celebrations.