LEVIATHAN

Kolya lives with his teenage son Roma and his second wife Lilya in a coastal town on the Barents Sea, in a house he built himself, on a plot of land his family has owned for generations. It is precisely this plot that Vadim wants, the mayor, a drinking, corrupt apparatchik who has the local judiciary in his pocket. Kolya calls on an old army comrade who has become a lawyer in Moscow, and he brings a file that could prove dangerous for Vadim. But the fight against the state also exposes what has long ceased to be right in Kolya’s house. In “Leviathan” (Russia, 2014), Andrei Zvyagintsev tells the story of Job in present-day Russia.

The film opens with the rocks and the sea of the Barents Sea to music by Philip Glass, and keeps this wide, cold gaze even when it falls on vodka bottles and government offices. Zvyagintsev and Oleg Negin won the award for best screenplay in Cannes in 2014, followed by the Golden Globe for best foreign-language film. “Leviathan” opened Around the World in 14 Films in Berlin in 2014 in the Opening Night section.

Shown at the 2014 edition of Around the World in 14 Films.

All films 2014 · Film Archive