Corruption in current Russia, but also lots more in this insightful film Hmm! the high number of negative votes that most of the good reviews for this film are gathering makes me suspect that Putin's guys are prowling around here...
Andrey Zvyagintsev has become one of my favorite active film directors. While I consider Elena (Yelena) his best film so far, Leviathan did not disappoint me, quite the contrary!. Beautifully shot in wide screen, with the glimmer light of the northernmost part of Russia, in a small coastal town, we are shown a series of events triggered by the ambition of the corrupt local mayor. Political and economic interests intermingle with the best and worst aspects of the human condition, involving loyalty, friendship, love, passion, human weakness in general, which will play a critical role in the development of the story.
The starting point is the abusive compulsory purchase of the house of an earthy man whose family lived there for generations, now married to a woman and with a son of a previous marriage. The mayor of the town lusts after his piece of land to construct his own luxury house, and force a compulsory purchase, authorized by the local law authorities acting under his net of corruption. The proprietor then seeks advice and help from an old friend now working as a lawyer in Moscow.
From here events develop intricately; unexpected turns keep the spectator always in suspense. The somewhat light tone of the first part of the film, pinpointed with some humor, gradually turns into more drama and a darker atmosphere.
The film works at various different levels, not focusing exclusively on one single aspect. Men and women are part of a family, of a society, with different love, friendship, hierarchical and legal ties. They have passions and weaknesses, and also strengths and virtues. A single act can dramatically change the course of a story. Decisions are not always made out of just reasoning; emotions play also a critical role, for good or for bad.
The skeleton of a beached whale appears in one of the most impressing and beautiful shots of the film. A leviathan from the sea, silent witness of the human affairs occurring at short distance from it. The story we are told takes place in a remote part of the world, yet it is universal. An straight interpretation of the title of the film may be leviathan = evil, present everywhere, in the most common places and acts of our lives, in the intrinsic randomness of life, and embodied in this particular case in the city mayor, whose brutal acts have as a final consequence the utter destroying of a family, although not in a linear way, but triggering a series of unpredictable events of fatal consequences. Or maybe the inert Leviathan represents the viciousness and corruption that has "survived" essentially unchanged, fossilized, from the soviet era into present day Russia.
There are also many references to religion; the complicity between religious authorities with political power in post-communist Russia, the apparent absence of God when justice does not prevail and fate imposes his often bleak reality, but also religion as provider of a frame for individual moral and life.
In summary, a highly recommended film, along with all the other Zvyagintsev's.