Country: Russia

Leviathan

Kolya (Madyanov) faces a bid by corrupt local mayor to take his land. Dmitri (Vdochenkov) arrives from Moscow to support Kolya’s fight. The director has been likened to a modern Dostoyevsky, so this slyly subversive film is a surprising choice for Russia’s official foreign language Oscar entry. Zyvagintsev delivers a compassionate, satirically incendiary’ film. The…
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Loveless

Andrei Zvyagintsev (Leviathan, Elena, The Return) has created a blistering winter’s tale, with a disintegrating marriage and the disappearance of a child at its emotional pivot. The broader picture is of the implacable forces tearing apart contemporary Russia, with the personal calamity casting everything into sharper relief. Setting the scene, the camera sketches an apocalyptic…
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Compartment No. 6

In the tradition of train films, which adds huit clos to the direction and serendipity of the road trip genre, Russian train films form class apart: claustrophobic quarters shared with a medley of imposed companions within; monotonous, unwelcoming taiga without; the tedious stasis of the long journey unalleviated by surly staff and bad food. Shooting…
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