LEVIATHAN

Russian, 2014, 140 minutes, Colour.
Aleksey Serebryakov, Elena Lyadova, Vladimir Vdovichenkov, Roman Madyanov.
Directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev.

Leviathan is the sea beast in the book of Job, a testimony that God is more powerful than Job or any human and that is a perspective that should guide us in our lives. Leviathan is also the title of this fourth film by Andrey Zvyagintsev whom many critics are praising as one of the great directors of our times. His previous films are well worth seeing, his Venice-winning The Return, also The Banishment and his alarmingly critical view of contemporary Russian society, Elena. With Leviathan he continues his critical view.

The film is strikingly photographed, in an isolated town on the northern Russian coast. On the shore, on one of the beaches, there are the massive bones of a stranded whale skeleton. There are also the skeletons of ship hulks. And in one beautiful, but ultimately tragic sequence, there is a sequence of a whale frolicking, leaping out of and then into the vast sea. Plenty of symbolism, a lot of metaphor for what happens in the film.

We are introduced to Kolya, the very ordinary and mundane Job of the film, waiting at the railway station for an old army friend from Moscow who is going to help him in a court case against one of the town authorities who covets Kolya’s property, his house and warehouse, overlooking the sea, for commercial development.

Kolya is going to suffer from his dealings with the authority, a smug and violent man, who manipulates people and, hypocritically, kowtows to the local Russian Orthodox priest, who speaks beautiful words at a closing ceremony about Jesus and the gospel, while conniving at behaviour, the opposite of gospel values.

But, Kolya is also going to suffer at home. He is not a particularly well educated man but has skills with his hands, mending, fixing, creating. At home is his second wife whom he loves but who has ambivalent feelings for him and for his friend. Also at home is his son, Roma, a teenage boy with a bitter attitude towards his stepmother, prone to depression.

The film takes its time in developing the characters in the situations, meal sequences, a picnic which has ominous consequences, to scenes of Kolya at court, with the officials of the court reading charges at great speed and with deadly monotone, striking commentary on the role and indifference of law and its application.

Kolya is not a perfect man by any standards and, along with a number of the characters, puts away an extraordinary amount of vodka, clouding his judgement, inclining him to violence, and, at the end, he becomes a victim of his own behaviour, trapped, imprisoned, but also a victim of the avaricious authorities.

Russian film companies invested in this film but the experience of watching Leviathan makes us ask how this story relates to the Vladimir Putin era, the place of individuals, the power and greed of the oligarchs, the effect on ordinary citizens far from Moscow.


1. Acclaim and awards for the film? The career of the director? Russia, his perspectives? Isolated towns, industry, society and family, authorities and exploitation? Government? The church?

2. The director’s stances, the focus on ordinary people, on the authorities and the gangster behaviour, ruthlessness, exploitation of murder? The perspective on the church, ordinary priests serving the people, the Bishop, his liaison with the wealthy and encouraging him? His final sermon on the double standards in preaching the Gospel of Christ in these situations? The presentation of the law, the impersonal reading of charges? Authorities and manipulation?

3. The Russian government at the time of the film, the role of Vladimir Putin? Memories of the Soviet Union? Targets? Brezhnev and Gorbachev for people to do their gun practice?

4. The impact of the film for Russians, those who know the situation in Russia well, for outsiders and those not familiar?

5. The title, the book of Job, Job and his sufferings, humiliations, learning humility, God’s intervention and speeches, Leviathan as the sea monster? The 17th century book by Thomas Hobbes? The whale bones on the shore, the skeletons of the ships looking like bones? The glimpse of the life whale in the sea?

6. The town, the outskirts and Kolya’s property? A loner? Going to the train, meeting his friend from Moscow, the bonds from the past, the army? Industry in the towns, the roads, the bridges, the streets, the court?

7. The countryside, the touch of desert, the sea cliffs and the mountains? The musical score and the use of classics, music of Philip Glass?

8. Kolya’s story, meeting his friend, his wife and his love for her, younger? His son, angry, depressed, clashing with his stepmother? The role of vodka, drinking and drinking? The discussions, going to the court, the legal reading of the charges in monotone? Vlad, his money, his power, the need to research his past and find evidence against him? The friend advising about the loss of the case but taking it up afterwards?

9. The friend from Moscow, his skill as a lawyer, friendship with Kolya, the relationship with Kolya’s wife, the picnic, the sexual encounter, the attacking
him, his retreat, injuries? The appointment with Vlad, the deal, in the car, the brutality, the threat of death, the gun? His return to Moscow?

10. Kolya, his skill with his hands, his workshop, whether to sell his property or not? Packing things? His love for his wife, concern for his son, the picnic, the attack on his friend?

11. The police, the initial roadblock, the policeman’s wife, the friendship? The man coming to get his car fixed, going to the picnic, targets, shooting, the machine gun? The drinking? The fight off screen?

12. Kolya’s wife, her marriage, love for her husband, care for him, the clashes with Roman but trying to care for him, at work at the factory, friendship with Angela? The encounter with the man from Moscow? Her having to make a decision? Not going to work, Angela missing her, her standing on the cliffs, watching the sea, seeing the whale? Her death off screen, finding her body on the shore?

13. Angela, her husband, friendship, concern, talk about Kolya, seeming evidence that he killed his wife, his violence and threats?

14. Kolya, drinking, the threats, the evidence against him, the police, the interviews? The innocent man and his being unable to defend himself? Imprisoned?

15. Vlad, the setup, hearing that Kolya would get 15 years imprisonment? Taking over the site, demolishing the building? His discussions with his superiors?

16. The church seen, the bishop, in pomp, the long sermon, the discussions about Jesus, Jesus and social concern but the bishop’s opposite stances? Encouraging the?

17. The local priest, talking with Kolya, asking about coming to church and confession?

18. The congregation at the religious ceremony, the wealthy citizens, the oligarchs?

19. The audience left with the story, an ordinary character, the memory of Job, issues of power and the consequences?

20. An allegory for contemporary situations in Russia?