Skip to content
Leviathan is set in the Russian coastal town of Pribrezhny where put-upon manual labourer, Kolya (Aleksey Serebryakov, giving a fantastic performance), has more than enough on his plate to make a man finally snap.
The plot is centered around a corrupt mayor, Vadim Shelevyat (Roman Madyanov), who’s as dodgy as they come and like an angry Mr Prosser from The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, wants to demolish his house in order to develop the land whilst paying a pittance for it (xe.com confirmed the amount of roubles in the script worked out around £7000). However, whereas Arthur Dent lay down in the mud in front of a bulldozer, Kolya uses strong language fuelled by copious amounts of vodka – something which annoyed Vladimir Medinsky, Russian’s Minister of Culture, as they stumped up 35% of the budget for the film, and then moaned about how everyone’s drunk as a lord for the majority of the 142 minute running time.
Kolya tries to resolve matters by bringing in his lawyer, an old friend from his army days, Dima (Vladimir Vdovichenkov), who helps to a degree but also brings his own problems to the table, and the whole situation threatens to leave Kolya up a creek without a paddle. Having a wayward son, along with his conflict with Kolya’s wife, also doesn’t help matters.
You want Kolya to succeed and keep his house because (Phil & Kirstie hat on here), set on the North coast by the sea, the kitchen not only has dual-aspect windows, but triple! Yes, windows all around! Must take a while to clean them all, but the views are spectacular. And I love how the Mayor, who is panicking about re-election in a year’s time, has a less than flattering picture of Russian tyrant Putin on his wall, showing him almost bald!
Everyone is on great form here – Serebryakov, particularly as Kolya. Full credit also goes to the stunning Elena Lyadova as his wife Lilya, plus Vladimir Vdovichenkov as Dmitriy (aka Dima) and Roman Madyanov as the ‘fat controller’ mayor.
The premise may not sound the most interesting but, on the contrary, it’s a fascinating watch and for those wondering about the title, all will be revealed when you watch. *I* didn’t know the reason for it prior to watching it, so I shall leave it for you to discover also.
Leviathan runs for 142 minutes, which isn’t a quick film, but it nicely takes its time to tell a good story. There’s also glorious locations of church ruins and other coastal locations, which were filmed at Teriberka on the Barents Sea, and make you want to go and visit to see exactly what’s out there. In fact, the stunning scenery is accompanied by a theme from the wonderful Philip Glass, a la Koyaanisqatsi.
It’s also brilliantly scripted in that even when you think you know what’s happened, and the outcome of certain scenes, there’ll always be something to surprise you and keep you guessing. It’s also never less than engaging and has quite a few humourous moments, so if the idea of a long film, entirely in Russian dialogue, doesn’t thrill you, then you can rest assured you will enjoy it. And whatever you make of it, I challenge you not to crack up during an early scene, when a judge is reading out a judgement faster than Usain Bolt can run the 100 metres!
There’s also wonderful two-hander scenes, which sometimes focus almost solely on one character, showing interesting direction, as you see all of their reactions, inbetween speaking as the other takes their turn, but nothing from the second person. That might sound bizarre but it really works.
BTW, Leviathan is not to be confused with the nonsense sci-fi movie from 1989 starring Peter Weller. Just to clear that up.
Go to page 2 for the presentation and the extras.
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.