Leviathan (Левиафан / Leviafan)

Wednesday 15 September at 7.30pm

Andrey Zvyagintsev│Russia│2014│141 mins│M violence & sexual references

In the haunting landscape of Russia’s north coast, Kolya lives and works on a small but desirable piece of waterside property, which the corrupt local mayor has claimed for the town. A blackly funny tale of one man’s struggle in a corrupt world.

“It’s a contemporary Russian tale, set on the shores of the Barents Sea, about the unholy powers of the state and the church bearing down on one man, Kolia (Alexey Serebryakov) and his family, after he dares to challenge an attempt by the local mayor, Vadim (Roman Maydanov), to take his home from him. The film’s title borrows from that of political philosopher Thomas Hobbes’s greatest work and helps itself to his view that life would be ‘nasty, brutish and short’ without good government and an organised society. It’s a tragedy with a hint of black comedy that moves at its own, sometimes surprising, pace and rhythm, and it lands a bruising punch on modern Russia… Like [Zvyagintsev’s] Elena before it, this is a parable, but it’s a grander affair unafraid to wander down some unusual paths with all the detail and density of a great novel.” – Dave Calhoun, Time Out