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Leviathan Movie Review

Leviathan is a 2014 Russian drama film directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev and starring Aleksei Serebryakov. It’s such a powerful movie.

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“All power is from God.

Where there’s power, there’s might“

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It’s about a Russian fisherman who fights back when a corrupt mayor tries to seize possession of his ancestral home. The movie was nominated for an Oscar in its year and in my opinion it maybe deserved to win it despite very fierce competition that year with amazing films such as ‘Force Majeure’ and ‘Wild Tales’, the former not even getting a nomination. The movie was acclaimed during its release and awards season, but it received criticism from Russian media themselves.

It is understandable that the country would oppose this portrayal of theirs having in mind the fear-mongering and animosity that usually exist when it comes to the relationship between Russia and America (and to the extent all the Western countries really). However, I personally find the movie truthful in what it preaches and deeply poignant.

The intertwined, problematic relationship between church and state and even church and politics is very well explored here, and it’s shown how deeply serious the problems of this country are when it comes to religion and politics. The movie also deals with the harsh realities of today’s economy, the corruption that plagues this country and how money, power and even faith can really impact a person’s life to no end. The biblical references are also intriguing, albeit overly utilized.

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Let’s talk about the characters. Kolya is a deeply tragic central figure so well played by the excellent Aleksei Serebryakov. He is phenomenal in the role and it’s difficult not to feel bad for this man who just can’t have it easy in life no matter what. The ending itself is heartbreaking. Dima and Lilya are also very memorable presences in his life, both grounded in reality and important. As for the mayor, Vadim, he is horrendous. He represents everything that is wrong with any political system and how abusive people in power can get. It’s really hurtful and frustrating watching his actions and realizing just how realistic they are.

That is the true power of Leviathan – its utter relevance and realism. It is a movie that never at all fears to explore and deal with some very thorny issues, resulting in so much controversy, but also deserved critical praise. I personally found the first half less memorable as the movie takes its time to get there, but when it does, it’s truly powerful and also important.

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Leviathan is also technically impressive. The performances are uniformly great, but the direction from Zvyagintsev is phenomenal and very confident throughout. He is the main reason why this movie worked as well as it did and he did deliver one of the best directorial works of 2014. The movie is small in scale mostly, but some of the scenes are clearly epic in quality and very cinematic. The rest representative of that has to be the skeleton at the beach sequence, which was aptly chosen to represent the movie in the form of a poster. It’s such a powerful moment, and the spiritual and mythical qualities in the movie are very interesting.

Superbly acted, masterfully directed, wonderfully scripted, relevant and powerful, Leviathan is a terrific film by all means and a shameless Oscar rob. The pacing isn’t great, but this is such an important film with great social commentary, it explores some very thorny issues, it is emotionally intense and very difficult to watch due to its immense realism. It is such a superbly crafted film that ranks among the best foreign movies of 2014 and one of the best Russian films in recent memory.

My Rating – 4.5

You can get Leviathan on Amazon.