Pamfir is Ukrainian director Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk’s debut feature film. It tells the story of how corruption affects a family in a small Ukrainian village close to the border of Romania.
Leonid (Oleksandr Yatsentyuk), whose nickname is Pamfir, has been abroad to earn a living for his family. When he returns to his home in a small village close to the Romanian border in order to keep his promise to his teenage son Nazar (Stanislav Potiak) and take him to the local carnival, his wife Olena (Solomiia Kyrylova) begs him not to leave again. Leonid reminds her that he can only earn a decent wage outside of Ukraine, but she believes his son needs a role model and as she says; “money will not make you a better dad.”
Nazar, who hesitates to go to church, is convinced by his mother to be part of a rehearsal, but when leaving the church, he starts a fire because, as he later explains, it might keep his dad from leaving the family again. However, the priest knows that Nazar started the fire and Leonid is forced to make matters right and make sure the church is rebuilt. In order to make fast money, he has to take up smuggling to neighboring Romania again as his family did in previous years.
Agreeing to do this one smuggling job in spite of a promise to his wife never to smuggle again, he ends up in the crosshairs of the local gangster boss, Mr. Oreste (Petro Chychuk) who is also the Chief Forestry Officer and a very powerful man. The longer Pamfir stays at home, the more he is dragged into the old ways of corruption and criminal activity and it gets harder and harder for him to stay out of trouble and protect his family.
On the night of the carnival, which is a specific tradition to western Ukraine, Pamfir faces his destiny, and his son has to decide whether he wants to stay in the world, which will probably lead him into corruption or go abroad like his father in order to create a better life for himself.