{"id":32598,"date":"2015-02-07T11:56:38","date_gmt":"2015-02-07T19:56:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=32598"},"modified":"2015-02-08T08:00:07","modified_gmt":"2015-02-08T16:00:07","slug":"leviathan-andrey-zvyagintsev-2014-russia-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=32598","title":{"rendered":"Leviathan (Andrey Zvyagintsev, 2014): Russia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Reviewed by e Howard Green. Viewed at the Lobero Theatre, Santa Barbara, Sunday February 1.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2014\/12\/21\/arts\/21LEVIATHAN3\/LEVIATHANjp-articleLarge.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"380\" height=\"244\" style=\"margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; float: left\"\/ > Corrupt Russian Mayor<\/p>\n<p>Leviathan, the official Russian entry in the Foreign Film category of the 2015 Academy Awards, has reportedly caused considerable rancor in the Russian hierarchy, according to a Front Page story in the New York Times (January 28, 2015, National Edition). \u00a0And clearly when one sees images\u00a0of recent former Soviet officials being prepared for use in\u00a0target practice, it is easy to see why Putin might be upset!<\/p>\n<p>Located\u00a0in a desolate North\u00a0Russian\u00a0seaside town, the film features\u00a0a mechanic, Kolya\u00a0(Alexei Serebryakov), his discontented wife Lilia (Elena Lyadova), and teenage delinquent son Roma (Sergey Pokhodaev). \u00a0Kolya wages a losing court\u00a0battle to save his family house and auto repair business. \u00a0He is aided by a Moscow lawyer Dmitri (Vladimir Vdovichenkov) who attempts to blackmail the mayor, with disastrous results. \u00a0The mayor, named Vadim (Roman Madyanov), schemes with police, judges and prosecutors under a portrait of Putin.<\/p>\n<p>Lilia, driven by guilt for the state of the situation, commits suicide. Kolya is arrested for the death of Lilia by authorities asserting\u00a0her death as murder. \u00a0Kolya is jailed for fifteen years and his\u00a0homestead is torn down. \u00a0The film ends\u00a0in a new church, which has been built over Kolya&#8217;s property. The priest\u00a0beseeches\u00a0the congregation to embrace\u00a0the truth because it\u00a0is true freedom.<\/p>\n<p>What is unclear is how such an anti-establishment film could be made at all in a oppressive society and then be submitted officially in an international festival. \u00a0Perhaps there is more freedom than this reviewer\u00a0had imagined!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reviewed by e Howard Green. Viewed at the Lobero Theatre, Santa Barbara, Sunday February 1. Corrupt Russian Mayor Leviathan, the official Russian entry in the Foreign Film category of the 2015 Academy Awards, has reportedly caused considerable rancor in the Russian hierarchy, according to a Front Page story in the New York Times (January 28, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36898,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,255],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-films","category-santa-barbara-film-festival-2015"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/36898"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32598\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}