Film Review - Leviathan

Russian film directors often have a style of film-making which captures both forbidding grandeur and small municipal detail simultaneously, effortlessly juxtaposing the two into an immediate relationship. Thus is the case with the Russian film, Leviathan directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev and written by Zvyagintsev and Oleg Negin.

The film's story is set in the coastal town of Teriberka is Russia's northern region near the port city of Murmansk. A simple handyman, Kolya is pitted against the corrupt town Mayor, Vadim, who has used town powers to appropriate Kolya's home for redevelopment as a resort. Kolya's life is already  in turmoil as his son, Roma has rejected his new step-mother, Lilia placing a strain on family relationships. An old army buddy, now a prominent Moscow lawyer, Dmitri arrives to support Kolya and face down the mayor and corrupt town officials however his efforts are compromised when he has an extramarital affair with Lilia.  This a film which explores the cracks in social contracts when fate, power and money intervene. Aleksei Serebryakov is well cast as the hot-headed Kolya with Roman Madyanov as his protagonist, Vadim the Mayor. Elena Lyadova as Lilia and Sergey Pokhodaev as Roma make up the rest of the family unit. This story has no happy ending and Kolya's fate seems inevitable in the context of this Russian reality.  

The film's desolate location shoots in the Kola peninsula (Kirovsk, Monchegorsk, Olenegorsk) and on the coast of the Barents Sea (Teriberka) provide an imagery which is both stark and yet majestic in its melancholy expanse. In this setting it's no wonder that the Russian locals turn to the vodka bottle to lubricate and lessen the burden of their existence.

The film has won a string of awards including Best Screenplay at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, Best Foreign Language Film at the 72nd Golden Globe Awards, Best Film at the London Film Festival and the 32nd Munich Film Festival, plus a Golden Peacock at the 45th International Film of India.