LEVIATHAN
Starring Aleksei Serebryakov, Roman Madyanov, Vladimir Vdovichenkov
Directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev
Anyone who's ever wondered how the story of Job could possibly be rendered even more sombre now has their answer: relocate it to contemporary Russia, a place that can make the trials of the Old Testament look like glorified pillow fights. Recognized as one of his nation's leading filmmakers (and a recent recipient of a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film), Andrey Zvyagintsev delivers a stirring indictment of the endemic corruption of the country’s powers-that-be and the anguish inflicted on the Russian people.
Nikolay (Aleksei Serebryakov) – an everyman in nature, handyman by trade – whose land has been unceremoniously wrested from him by Vadim (Roman Madyanov), the mayor of his coastal town. When the kangaroo court ruling is read aloud in rapid-fire, monotone fashion, it confirms that the fix was always in and what low regard the working class is held in. (It also serves as one of the darkly comic reprieves that Zvyagintsev weaves into this tragedy.) Nikolay recruits an old army buddy turned influential lawyer (Vladimir Vdovichenkov) to assist but his presence soon only invites more misery on our po-faced protagonist.
Leviathan is so sturdily structured and rooted so firmly in its thematic foundations that you’re initially inclined to admire it as you might a piece of architecture. However, Zvyagintsev’s painterly compositions have the capacity to astonish, rendering mundane images iconic, be it a forlorn woman surveying the Barents Sea or a foreboding summit between agents of church and state. And while the director employs poetic flourishes, there’s little question about the sense of outrage that drives his film (and has incurred admonishments from the Russian Culture Minister). As ruggedly beautiful as it is bleak, this is an undeniably powerful piece of cinema.
