Leviathan (2014)

A fine work of Russian art, truly. The atmosphere of the movie was as tranquil as the milieu itself. Reminds me of a Finnish director, Aki Kaurismäki, though shooting of the scenes was way better. Movie was about stability and how little can ordinary people change the big picture.

Brilliant film that discretely depicts the hypocrisy and nonsense of the church and faith, corruption and power inequality. The ones in power always win in the courts. This film is one of the few films I've watched lately that made me feel amazed by it's end.

In Russian style, the story challenges constructs of modern society. In this case, social contract theory is under attack showing how governments can easily become a vehicle of corruption, thereby destroying more liberty than it serves to protect. Along the way, the story provides stunning backdrop of Russian landscapes and a positively warming depiction of Russian culture and it's people. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie.

This Russian film was included as an entry in the latest 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die book, I knew it was one of the foreign language films getting attention during awards season, so I was definitely going to sit through it. Basically the story is set on the outskirts of a small coastal town in the Barents Sea, a fictional town called Pribrezhny, were whales sometimes come to the bay. There lives an ordinary family consisting of hotheaded car mechanic Kolya (Aleksey Serebryakov), his second wife Lilya (Elena Lyadova) and their teenage son Roma (Sergey Pokhodaev). The local corrupted Mayor (Roman Madyanov) is threatening the family through a legal plot, if successful it will take away their land, a house and small car repair business from Kolya. To save the family from being ruined Kolya calls his old friend from the army, Dmitri Seleznev (Vladimir Vdovichenkov), who has now become an authoritative attorney who may be able to help with their case. Kolya and Dmitri work together and decide to fight back against the Mayor by collecting dirt on his crooked activity, but in the end it is not enough and the house is pulled down. I admit I was not able to follow the entire story, it being subtitled, and to be honest I did drift or doze off at one point, but I did stick with the majority of the scenes I should have, it had some interesting political elements and overall a good insight into family trauma brought on by corruption, a worthwhile enough drama. It won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film, it was nominated the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film of the Year, and it was nominated the BAFTA for Best Film Not in the English Language. Good!