Elena (2011)
Directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev
After suffering from a heart attack, a wealthy elderly Russian man plans to will most of his estate to his estranged daughter, but his titular wife has other plans.
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What critics compared Elena to
Leviathan is the fourth feature from 50-year-old filmmaker Andrey Zvyagintsev (The Return, Elena), a director whose fondness for long takes and spiritual themes has often drawn comparisons to the late Russian master Andrei Tarkovsky.
The story, small in scope, is a concentrated political chamber melodrama that's reminiscent of the plot that drove Zvyagintsev's previous film, Elena .
As in their previous feature, Elena, Zvyagintsev and cowriter Oleg Negin modulate their social critique with sharp, ironic humor; the mayor, in particular, is an inspired satirical creation, at once a spiteful monster and a graceless buffoon.
Yet Leviathan, the latest movie from auteur Andrey Zvyagintsev (The Return, Elena), won Best Screenplay at Cannes and is Russia’s entry for Best Foreign-Language Film at the 87th Academy Awards.
Written and directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev (The Return, Elena), the film concerns a man named Kolya who lives in a small coastal town on the Barents Sea, who wants to save his home from an eminent-domain-like seizure by the local mayor.
Leviathan, the pitch-black new film from Elena director Andrey Zvyagintsev, is bookended by montages of startling, almost cosmically withering imagery.