LEVIATHAN: ANDREY ZVYIAGINTSEV’S SELF TESTAMENT. BY PRADIP BISWAS, THE INDIAN EXPRESS NEWSPAPERS JURY MEMBER INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL OF INDIA AND FRIBOURG INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL, FIFF, SWISS CURATOR INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVALS SHANKAR MOHAN, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR (Thanks to Shankar Mohan, the Artistic Director, International Film Festival of India (IFFI), Goa, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, govt. of India, we could such a massive work made with soul’s pain and aesthetic sensibility, rare in world cinema) The film Leviathan by Andrey Zvyiagintsev, the 4th feature in succession, has finally won the Grand Prix at 45th IFFI, Goa, 2014. It means all four of his films, outstanding works, have so far been recognized with resilience and wide appreciation all over the globe. Thanks to Shankar Mohan, Artistic Director, IFFI, Goa, we could see the fourth classic from Zvyiagintsev with primary immediacy and tingling pride. Fortunately, just before the final result was announced a book on Zvyiagintsev was launched at the Open Forum. The book titled ANDREY ZVYIAGINTSEV: REFLECTIOS ON MIRROR authored by the above author, dedicated to Mrinal Sen, the heretic maestro of global cinema, was released by Shankar Mohan, Directors A.K.Bir and Shaji N. Karun and author Pradip Biswas that created a good critical interactions on board. The book is the first of its kind in the cinema world. The critic Peter Bradshaw remarks: “The great trial of Job is reborn in this magnificent Russian movie,” first seen at Cannes this year. LEVIATAHNA is a tragic drama, compelling in its moral seriousness and great trauma and a sense of class-divided Russia at present, with a severity and power. Indeed, it its progression, the film escalate into a cannibalistic, terrible, annihilating sort of class war. It is true Zvyagintsev tends to combine an Old Testament fable with something like, some say, Tarkovsky’s Sacrifice; Others say it also has something of Elia Kazan’s On the Waterfront. This critic defies this last mentioned comment as such comparison is ill-conceived. Rather I would say the film has much more from Theo Angelopoulos’s films that show the lacerated Balkan countries with ruthless hatred and vengeance and being reflected in different colours in LEVIATHAN. LEVIATHAN tells a story of a car mechanic with a very modest property on prime real estate, a delightful spot on the Barents Sea. As Russia is still based on class-related issues, the director depicts realistically a crooked mayor called Vadim – a mature performance from Roman Madyanov, looking something like Boris Yeltsin – wants this land, his shop and hits Kolia, the under dog with a cunning and compulsory purchase order. Kolia’s old army Chum Dimitri (Vladimir Vdovichenkov), now a slick Moscow lawyer, has an incriminating file on Vadim that he promises will induce Vadim to back down. Howver, it goes haystack. But the director radiates how attempting to blackmail Russia’s well-connected gangster class is fraught with danger and killing. LEVIATHAN shows a world governed by drunken, depressed crooks and thugs. In Russia everyone is drowning in vodka and despair. Kolia is at the centre of a turbulent storm of drastic destiny, at the focal point of smart lawyers, aggressive politicians and arrogant priests with vested interests. Indeed, the title refers to Hobbes’s LEVIATHAN, the classic work about liberty and the state, and also the whale. A crooked-looking priest speaks to Kolia about enduring his trials like Job, surrendering to God’s will, as mighty as the great beast of the sea: “Canst thou draw out Leviathan with a fish-hook?” Yet Kolia has not become Job, but the beached whale itself. Stunningly shot and brilliantly acted, especially by Madyanov, makes the film tick at every point of its going. LEVIATHAN is a film made on a grand, classic scale and tragic strophe. It appears to be metaphorical masterpiece. END
Posted on: Sat, 24 Jan 2015 12:41:24 +0000
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