La Palisiada (2023) on Netflix
Ukraine, 1996, months before the death penalty is suspended. Forensic psychiatrist Oleksandr and investigator Ilhar investigate the murder of a police colleague, whose widow both men once loved.
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- Netflix3.1/5
- IMDb6.1/10567 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
Trailer
Plot summary
The story runs along two timelines. It opens with a group of young people in the present day, then moves to Uzhhorod in 1996, while the death penalty is still in force. A police officer has been murdered, and the case is given to two old friends: Oleksandr, a forensic psychiatrist, and Ilhar, an investigator. The three men had worked together and stayed close for years, and both of the survivors once loved the same woman, who is now the dead officer's widow. For the city, the search for the killer is a question of honor. The state around the two men is new, and its rules are unsettled. Oleksandr's family is coming apart as he is drawn into the case.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about La Palisiada (2023)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The film's director got the idea after learning that in 1996 Ukraine was second in the world, after China, in the number of death sentences, 89 of them, and that from 1991 to 1996 more than 600 people were executed.
- The "bratki" — the gangster types — were cast from ordinary people picked as typical for each role, and the crew sometimes stopped suitable-looking passers-by on the street and invited them to a casting.
- The film is the first Ukrainian one to raise the issue of the death penalty, and director Philip Sotnychenko has said he learned at seven, after Ukraine became independent, that people were being shot near the family home in Lukyanivka, at the pre-trial detention center.
- Many scenes were shot in a single take using a retro camera and old tapes that the creators ordered from all over the world, a choice singled out in the cinematography of Volodymyr Usyk.
- The film deliberately uses a single, emotionless voiceover in the style of pirated videotapes, performed by Nina Tararuyeva and made not to correspond to the actors' performances.
