Pusher

Milo, a seasoned Serbian drug lord, finds himself grappling with the challenges of sobriety as he attends a Narcotics Anonymous meeting. This five-days-clean Milo openly expresses his concerns about the pressure of preparing for his daughter Milena’s 25th birthday party, fearing it may push him back to his old habits. After the meeting, he meets up with his henchman, Branko, to pick up a drug shipment. However, instead of the expected heroin, they receive a staggering 10,000 ecstasy pills. In search of clarity, Milo confronts his Albanian supplier, Luan, who informs him that a new heroin shipment will be sent, while also allowing him to attempt selling the ecstasy.

Following a tense conversation with his demanding daughter, Milena, who exhibits her spoiled nature, Milo heads back to his club to prepare a feast for the party. He insists that his henchmen taste his cooking, and later encounters his associate, Little Muhammed, who arrives to deliver his daily goods. An arrogant Muhammed boasts about his status as the “King of Copenhagen,” but Milo retorts with a mocking nickname, calling him the “King Kong of Copenhagen.” As Milo struggles with his lack of knowledge about ecstasy, he reluctantly relies on Muhammed to find a buyer for the pills. However, after all his henchmen fall ill from his cooking, Milo is left with no choice but to trust Muhammed to handle the sale independently.

During the course of the party, Milo juggles between socializing with guests, finishing up the meal, and trying to reach the elusive Muhammed. While attempting to buy wine from an underground shop, he discovers that Milena’s boyfriend, Mike, is actually a drug dealer. Milo confronts Mike, compelling him to become his exclusive supplier while bartering with Milena over price. In a twist of fate, he encounters Kurt the Cunt, a lesser dealer, who provides him with heroin. Pressured to the breaking point, Milo succumbs and smokes some of the drug. With no word from Muhammed after four agonizing hours, he resorts to contacting a corrupt cop for assistance.

When Milo visits Luan to confess he lost the ecstasy and requests more time for payment, the Albanians enforce an unwelcome partnership to remedy the situation. Turning his club’s kitchen into an illicit meeting area, he meets Rexho, an Albanian thug, and a Polish pimp who arrive to discuss the sale of a young girl into sex work. Disgusted, Milo attempts to dissociate himself from the transaction, only to be marginalized by Rexho, who demands Milo wait on them. The pimp even tricks Milo into ingesting speed as a sick joke.

The plan to sell the girl to local brothel owner Jeanette falls through when she refuses to take her due to suspicions of her age. In a moment of empathy, Milo offers the girl a slice of his daughter’s birthday cake, learning that it is also her birthday. As chaos ensues when Rexho leaves, the girl tries to escape, but when the furious pimp pours boiling water on her hand, Milo snaps. Overcome with rage, he brutally kills the pimp with a hammer and waits for Rexho, whom he also kills upon arrival. The corrupt officer later delivers a badly injured Muhammed in his car trunk, cautioning Milo not to harm him further.

Desperate, Milo turns to his former friend and ex-henchman, Radovan, who now runs a thriving Kebab restaurant. Radovan agrees to assist Milo one last time, helping him to extract the truth from Muhammed, who reveals that the ecstasy pills were actually counterfeit. After stashing Muhammed in a freezer to manage the situation, Milo and Radovan work together to dispose of the two corpses. As dawn breaks, Milo returns to the tranquility of his home, engaging in a quiet conversation with Milena, who queries his absence during the festivities before heading to bed. He finishes the evening by stepping outside, silently smoking a cigarette while staring into the emptiness of his swimming pool, lost in thought.

Last Updated: November 15, 2024 at 16:48