Leviathan (2014)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2014
	Director: Andrey Zvyaginstev
	Actors: Aleksey Serebryakov, Elena Lyadova, Vladimir Vdovichenkov, Roman Madyanov
	Country: RUS
	Genre: Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 09.02.2015, Schauburg, OV sneak preview
Synopsis: In the outskirts of a small coastal town in the Barents Sea, lives an ordinary family: Kolya (Serebryakov), his wife Lilya (Lyadova) and their teenage son Romka. The local corrupted mayor (Madyanov) is trying to take away the land, a house and a small auto repair shop from Kolya. To save their homes Kolya calls his old Army friend in Moscow (Vdovichenkov), who has now become an authoritative attorney. Together they decide to fight back.
Review: Unlike the Tarkowskiy style seen the last months, this Russian movie has a lot of active and emotional dialogues. I felt like for Kak menya zovut a lot of passion and emotion in this Russian village.  It depicts relationships like in many other countries, corruption, jealousy, superiority complex of local politician, but with this passion in life that is so typical of the Slavic people. This passion explodes in love, in violence as it rests in the raw nature, in the mountains, looking at the sea. I admired these features. The non-existence of worry for the environment in the daily life and also the continuous ratio of power between the male characters are two features that I sensed all along the movie and that impressed me.  The acting is not necessarily subtle because of the passion. But the acting is extremely authentic. I would have preferred that the force of nature is shown more often and with the full colours. Finally the tone of the movie is releatively grey and contrasts therefore with the story and the characters.
Rating: 6 /10