Leviathan (2014)

Original title

Левиафан

Directed by

Andrey Zvyagintsev

Genre

drama film, crime film

Country

Russia

Runtime

2h 22m

Rated

R

Rating

7.4 of 10 from 968 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A man in a small Russian town fights to keep his land from a corrupt local mayor. The struggle slowly drags his family into a nightmare of power and betrayal.

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What happens

Leviathan (Russian: Левиафан, Leviafan) is a 2014 Russian crime drama film directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev, co-written by Zvyagintsev and Oleg Negin, and starring Aleksei Serebryakov, Elena Lyadova, Vladimir Vdovichenkov, and Roman Madyanov. According to Zvyagintsev, the story of Marvin Heemeyer's 2004 rampage through a small US town using a modified bulldozer inspired him. A similar concept was adapted into a Russian setting. However, after several rewrites of the script, few overt similarities to that story remained in the final version. The character development of the protagonist parallels that of the biblical figure Job and the story of Naboth's Vineyard. The producer Alexander Rodnyansky has said: "It deals with some of the most important social issues of contemporary Russia while never becoming an artist's sermon or a public statement; it is a story of love and tragedy experienced by ordinary people". Critics noted the film as being formidable, dealing with quirks of fate, power and money. The film was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or in the main competition section at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival. Zvyagintsev and Negin won the award for Best Screenplay. The film was judged the best film of the year at the 2014 BFI London Film Festival and the 45th International Film Festival of India. It won the Best Foreign Language Film award at the 72nd Golden Globe Awards. and the Asia Pacific Screen Award for Best Feature Film in 2014. It was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 87th Academy Awards. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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