+ Best Russian Movie of the Year + Best Big Flop Movie of the Year + Most Undeserved Flop of the Year + Best Societal Critique of the Year
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| The skeleton of a beached whale and a man on a rock looking at it effectively echoes the feeling of eternity and timelessness at play in Andrey Zvyagintsev's Leviathan |
We follow a choleric man, who fights against local injustice in the shape of his mayor, who wants to expropriate his family's home for a song. - But his fight hits the rocks.
Leviathan is written by Oleg Negin (Elena (2011)) and great Russian co-writer/director Andrey Zvyagintsev (The Banishment/Izgnanie (2007)). The film features first rate performances, especially from Aleksei Serebryakov (Gulf Stream under the Iceberg/Golfstrim pod aysbergom (2012)) as protagonist Kolya and Roman Madyanov (Bablo (2011)) as the despicable mayor.
Leviathan is photographed strikingly, (cinematographer Mikhail Krichman (Winter Journey/Zimniy put (2013)), playing with the contrast between the raw, unsympathetic people we meet and the brutal landscape that they inhabit. The film is societal critique of the sharpest kind against power structures and power culture in contemporary Russia, secular as well as religious. - It is surprisingly precise in its judgment of the vast country's macho authority culture and its corruption.
Leviathan is a ceaselessly disheartening film, an excellent, relevant drama, - just don't expect it to be a party-starter!
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2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
Watch a trailer for the film here - unfortunately in an Italian dub
Cost: 220m RUB, approximately 3.36 mil. $
Box office: 4.4 mil. $
= Big flop (returned 1.3 times the cost)
[Leviathan premiered 23 May (Cannes Film Festival, France, in competition) and runs 141 minutes. Zvyagintsev was inspired by the story of Marvin Heemeyer, who went on a rampage in his local Colorado town in a modified bulldozer in 2004, demolishing the town hall, the former mayor's house and other buildings in what he described as his 'duty to God' before committing suicide. The Biblical figure Job also served as an inspiration. 35 % of the funding came from the Russian Ministry of Culture. Shooting took place in Russia from August - October 2013. The film opened #54 to a 12k $ first weekend in 2 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #33 and in 80 cinemas, grossing 1 mil. $ (22.7 % of the total gross). The biggest market was the film's country of origin Russia with 1.4 mil. $ (31.8 %). North America was the 2nd largest, and Spain was the 3rd largest with 421k $ (9.6 %). The Russian Minister of Culture criticized the film for 'defiling' the national culture and not liking Russians; others criticized making the film with funding from the ministry. - Despite this the film was still chosen as the official Russian entry for the Oscars, where it was nominated for the Best Foreign Film Oscar, lost to Pawel Pawlikowski's Ida from Poland. The film won a Golden Globe, was nominated for a BAFTA, won the main screenplay prize in Cannes, was nominated for 5 European Film awards and an Independent Spirit award, won a National Board of Review award and many other honors. Zvyagintsev returned with Loveless/Nelyubov (2017). Serebryakov returned in Liompa (2014, short), Fartsa (2015, TV-series), The Dive/Pogruzhenie (2015, short) and theatrically in Klinch (2015). Leviathan is certified fresh at 98 % with an 8.6/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of Leviathan?
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