Russia’s Movie Leviathan: Life?

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Mascha Gessen writes about Leviathan Russia’s academy award nomination this year.In a recent speech the country’s minister of culture made a reference to Leviathan  without naming it, calling its genre “films about ‘Russia the shithole.’” So why did Russia support its nomination? Vladimir Menshov, the head of the Oscar nominating committee, opposed Leviathan’s candidacy. “It’s a very strong work,” he has said, “but it is difficult…The film is so hopeless!”.Many Russians believe that foreigners, or at least Americans, already see Russian life precisely as vile and desperate, and that this view is unfair. So the vote for Leviathan says,  Go ahead, give your decadent award to a movie that shows Russia the way you Americans view it anyway.How desirable could Oscar recognition be in a country that views itself as being at war with the United States (by proxy of Ukraine)? Two other possible Russian award contenders, pulled their own films out of the nominating process. Konchalovsky explained that he did not want any Hollywood handouts. If Zvyagintsev does get the Academy Award, he will likely be condemned for it at home, by the media and the ministry of culture—in a sad echo of Menshov’s own experience in 1980.In their infinite cynicism, the Russian selectors have probably overestimated Americans’ ability to imagine the depth of Russia’s despair. What keeps the viewer glued to the screen for 141 minutes of unambiguous characters against a sparse landscape are the very fine details and vagaries of Russian misfortune. Just how will things become as bad as they are clearly fated to become?

The viewer does not need to know anything about Russia to follow the drama of the little man fighting the System. Viewers will be able to catch references to recent political events. Graffiti that appears to be part of a newscast says PUSSY RIOT. And at the very end, another reference to the protest-art group comes in an on-screen sermon: “When blasphemy is called a prayer,” says the priest, referring to Pussy Riot’s “Punk Prayer,” a protest in a Moscow cathedral for which three members were sentenced to two years in jail, “that constitutes the destruction of truth.” The film continues the conversation Pussy Riot started in 2012. The group screamed in protest against the symbiosis of church and state, and landed in jail. Now Dmitri, the lawyer, is trying to fight the church-court-state machine with facts. Dmitri does not believe in God, revelations, or confessions of any sort. He places his faith in facts only.

With Kolya in jail, Dmtri goes to see the mayor. He has the facts about the mayor’s own past crimes—and he is certain he can blackmail him into obeying the law. Such is the power of facts. The mayor is indeed scared for a second.

“What do you want?” he asks.

“I want Nikolay to keep what’s his,” says the lawyer.

“Oh, but that is impossible,” responds the bureaucrat, and the clarity of this statement appears to set him at ease.

This scene occurs early on in the movie, and from this moment we know how it will all end. Facts are helpless before Truth—and the Russian Leviathan has a monopoly on the truth.

Leviathan

Note. After this article was published, Leviathan  won the G olden Globe award for

Best foreign film of the year.

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