Leviathan [Andrey Zvyagintsev] izione: Regno Unito] [Import]

A tale of family ruin meted out by authoritarian control, political greed, arbitrary bureaucratic application of the law. In addition, personal betrayal, loss, grief.The state exists in theory to protect the rights and well being of the citizens on which the power and privileges of the state depend. Without the people there is nothing, or nothing but elites battling among themselves for power and control. Wise leaders and governments support the health of the people as a reflection of their own health, seeing the two as intimately linked, which they are. Despotism, on the other hand, can only exist with the forced consent of the people. When that consent is withdrawn tyrants and their lackeys run, if they can (Nazis to Argentina or Paraguay, for example, or Pinochet to Europe).But wise leaders and governments sound like an oxymoron in many parts of the world, including Russia, a country that has never known and enjoyed democratic freedoms (even now).Kolya is a middle-aged garage mechanic living in the far north of Russia, possibly near Murmansk. He’s a widower with one son (Roma, aged about 15). He’s remarried now to Lilya, or perhaps their arrangement is less formal (a common-law marriage). Certainly Roma doesn’t view Lilya as his mother. He feels no remorse in belittling her, even to her face. Long suffering and used to the pain, Lilya tolerates the abuse. As an only child Roma is also indulged in and spoiled by Kolya. So Lilya’s situation is lose-lose, losing if she scolds Roma (inviting Kolya’s wrath) or losing if she doesn’t (enduring Roma’s bullying).The garage where Kolya repairs cars, trucks and boats is located below his house, a sprawling two-storey structure he built himself not far from the wild waters of the Barents Sea. The waves of the sea crash against rocky headlands and wash up death, including the corpses of whales from time to time. The long white skeleton of one rests on a local beach. It looks like a dinosaur relic, its massive bones formed during the Mesozoic Era, not in the Holocene Epoch, the age we are currently living through. Does the rot, decay and neglect of the whale symbolize anything in the film? It could, as rottenness and neglect are the look of authority in modern Russia, or at least in the part of Russia shown in this film.Trouble is brewing. The fat cat local mayor (who more accurately resembles a pig or hog) wants the land on which Kolya lives. He has worked out a scheme with a telecommunications company to have them build their transmitter on the land. Apparently Kolya’s patch is perfect for transmitting radio waves, so Kolya, Lilya, Roma, the house and garage will have to go. Sorry, but modern Russia means progress, not nostalgia. You will be compensated. No, you have no choice other than to comply. But Kolya, a strong, stubborn, independent type, has other ideas. He’s not in the mood for a lot of things, including authority, politicians and corruption. He’s staying put, and so is the house. With the help of a lawyer friend from Moscow named Dima he has filed an injunction with the local court, claiming the state (local government) is unlawfully attempting to remove him from his property by forcing him to sell it. He owns it, not the state, so he makes the decisions regarding it, not the state. The deeds are in his name, nobody else’s. The property has been in his family for three generations. The state’s case should be considered null and void. But it isn’t. The court decides otherwise. On what pretext? On any that has been decided by the state, evidently, the court and its judges lodged in the pockets of the political fat cats and hogs.Kolya has a rifle and the way he looks suggests he’d like to use it on the thieves who are tightening the noose around him and his family. But one can’t say, or won’t say, how he handles this trouble. You need to watch the film on your own.Dima, the lawyer, does his level best to hold the mayor and his superiors accountable, knowing the law in detail and citing its articles to them. But the mayor has thugs, stupid-looking yes men with narrow foreheads, big builds and guns. Things could get dangerous in this stand-off.The film is magical and beautiful not because it’s depressing (which it is). It’s marvellous to look at due to two things: the setting and cinematography. Snowy mountains, brilliant sunsets, powerful waves, massive cliffs, long fjord-like bays, pristine air, silence, stillness. The camera is still too. At least for long periods. Andrey Zvyagintsev, the celebrated director of the film, has a clever and patient eye. When he finds beauty he lingers, landscapes soaking into our senses. No rapid cutting for him, quick cuts the scourge of modern cinema with their jarring jumps and ADD sensibilities that cater to those who can no longer focus, observe, concentrate, think. Instant cinema like a styrofoam cup of Cup Noodle, Japan’s favourite. Just add hot water.The film is influential and won several major international awards in 2014 when it was released. But the Russians hated it. Or many said they did. The media there want to peddle a modern, democratic image. Yet actual conditions belie the image.The film has some humour in it. Dark political humour, that is. In a picnic scene along a river Kolya and his mates are drinking vodka, which they love. The women are preparing food. The kids are playing near a waterfall and the river. The men have rifles, courtesy of one cop named Pasha who is Kolya’s friend (one of the few local cops who isn’t crooked). Pasha sets up some empty bottles on a log for target practice. Hit a bottle with a bullet, shatter it, one glass of vodka down the hatch. Miss the target and three glasses of vodka. Drink up! Pasha’s turn now. For kicks he takes out an AK-47 machine gun and mows down all the remaining bottles with a few short bursts. Party pooper! Kolya and the others are angered by this antic. No fun, destroying all the targets. No problem, says Pasha. He has brought alternative targets — big black-and-white framed photos of former Soviet leaders. No kidding! His private rogues gallery includes Leonid Brezhnev, Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin. But where is Putin? Oh, there he is. He hangs on a wall in the office of the barnyard hog mayor. He pouts his little-boy pout, looking sullen and unforgiving, the look of a person with issues and grievances. No soul and tranquility there, absent qualities. Instead, the cold hard stare. This customer is nasty and means business no matter what the chummy photoshopped photos of him say and imply. He has the look of Billy the Kid or Jesse James, angry and bitter.Dark, disturbing, depressing. When the people crown me king Putin, Trump and plenty of others will be incarcerated for life.

On the remote Kola Peninsula, near the Russian border with Finland, Kolya lives in the house he built with his 2nd wife and son from his first marriage. The corrupt mayor(Vadim)of the local town wants to acquire the property for redevelopment, but with the help of a childhood friend, now practicing as a lawyer in Moscow, Kolya attempts to resist the compulsory purchase.The first half of the film seems to be the fight of David vs Goliath but due to the insertion of adultery and vodka drinking it doesn't quite live up to this.Also the woman's role seems to be diminished to be the bearer of pain. Kolya's son has no respect for his step mother.Kolya asks, pleadingly, "Why, Lord?" during a moment of suffering, but religion offers neither answers nor hope. Indeed, it is a priest who expressly persuades Vadim to stick to his guns in the land dispute, to regard his own power as synonymous with the divine one. The cards are stacked against the working classes. Any opposition (even with a lawyer)or protest is crushed by the local mafia.Might becomes right.Injustice flourishes like the wild waves crashing around the shore. Kolya becomes Job.The fatalism means Kolya will never triumph against the system. There is a beautiful scene where the son sits by the skeleton of a whale on the beach. Hilarious court scenes show a judge offering a speedy monologue without time for questions or breath.This story heavy with symbolism of the fusion of power and religion is emphasised by the title(with allusions to Thomas Hobbes's book,which states man because of his pride and passions be submitted to government).The power of the governor(the mayor) is compared to Leviathan.Without a contract between governed and governors life becomes `nasty,brutish and short.' There is a scene where they have portraits of ex-Soviet leaders to use for target practice and Kolya asks if they have anything current. The policeman replies that the current one can ripen a little longer on the wall. Obviously they are talking about Putin, Medvedev etc. Also, on the TV at Kolya's house you can see something about Pussy Riot (just the name), but the fact the movie links state corruption with the church's hypocrisy makes you think this is a statement of support by the director.We also get the glimpse of whales in the Barents sea and the playing of Phil Glass's music from Akhenaton. With the current idolisation of Putin by ordinary Russians this film is very topical(we get shots of Putin looking down from a portrait on the wall).The film offers a savage portrait of the corruption and lawlessness endemic in contemporary Russian society.How this film got past the censors beats me.Maybe the authorities don't care how they're perceived by the West.Maybe they still need the revenue knowing it would go down well in the West.Yet Ifeel the film doesn't quite live up to its bleak cosmic scenery and poetic cinematography. Putin has unleashed forces over which he has no control.