Rhino

A young man grows up in a rural Ukrainian village. Coming of age in the 1990s, he is a delinquent and petty thug. He is forced to join the Ukrainian mafia for protection after a smaller mafia-associated gang, led by a man called “Skull”, threatens his family. Now that they are both under the same organization, Skull cannot touch him. He is nicknamed “Rhino” by his boss for his headstrong nature.

Rhino rapidly adjusts to criminal life, acting as hired muscle in a variety of tasks, such as protection rackets, abductions, arson, and targeted killings. He prospers, earning a steady wage, earns subordinates of his own, and marries his pregnant girlfriend in a lavish wedding ceremony.

Now in his thirties, Rhino and his gang are largely autonomous; the larger mafia organization lets them act without consequences as long as they provide a consistent cut of profits. Rhino becomes increasingly disillusioned as his gang becomes more violent and the relationship with his wife and child deteriorates.

A special prosecutor is sent from the capital to build a case against Rhino and other mafia members. He offers Rhino a plea deal in exchange for being an informant, but instead Rhino is paid by the organization to assault him and destroy the records of mafia members. After Rhino and his gang have a drunken orgy to celebrate the massive payday, his wife and child leave him, and are killed in an automobile accident. An increasingly paranoid and callous Rhino deteriorates, taking on even more violent jobs while falling into drug addiction as escapism.

While high and hallucinating, Rhino assaults members of Skull’s gang. Deciding to break the truce between mafia-affiliated gangs, Skull abducts Rhino, and hammers nails through his feet, pinning him to the floor of a barn. After the torture, Rhino takes the chance to kill Skull, before ripping his feet from the ground and escaping.

After recovering in the hospital, Rhino learns that he has become a fugitive. The other members of his gang are dead or missing, and their stash has been emptied. He meets with one of his mafia contacts to secure cash and a pistol, which he uses to kill the rest of Skull’s gang who are driving his stolen car. He smuggles himself to Germany, and works as a laborer. One of his missing gang members shows up and attempts to convince Rhino to return; suspicious, he lures him out to the forest. Discovering that his friend is actually part of a hit squad, Rhino kills and buries them, sparing his friend who promises to lie that the mission was successful.

Still tormented by his dead wife, Rhino returns to Ukraine, and recounts his life story to a mysterious man, the framing device of the film. The man reminds him of a suppressed memory; he had killed a child when he eliminated Skull’s gang. Rhino, reflecting on the mysterious man’s words, realizes he has nothing left in his life. Provoking a pair of thugs on the street, they stab him repeatedly as he names all the people who died because of his actions. Mortally wounded, he crawls to find a scattering of his family photos on the pavement, which he embraces as he dies.