Although it was ultimately Winter Sleep that earned Cannes' top honor this year, Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev made just as big an impression with Leviathan. The drama, which updates and refashions the Book of Job into a modern story exploring corruption and economic disparity during a vicious land dispute. The film won Cannes' screenplay award and is poised to be one of the season's biggest imports, and now the only question is if it will be part of the Oscar field in the Best Foreign Language category.
Leviathan will hit theaters on December 31st courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics, but is making its Telluride debut tonight. Check out the trailer and synopsis below.
Kolia (the magnetic Alexey Serebryakov) lives in a coastal village near the Barents Sea in Northern Russia, running an auto-repair shop from the garage of his childhood home, shared with young wife Lilya (Elena Lyadova) and his teenage son from a previous marriage. The family’s world is under threat: Vadim Sergeyich (Roman Madyanov), the imperious town Mayor, has slapped a compulsory acquisition order on Kolia’s prime land, earmarking the site for a development of undetermined but dubious funding (and offering risible, token compensation). To Sergeyich’s great surprise, Kolia enlists the help of ex-army friend Dmitri (Vladimir Vdovitchenkov), now a hotshot lawyer from Moscow. Dmitri has uncovered some highly incriminating evidence that he believes will force the Mayor to back down, even if he has secrets of his own. Soon tempers and passions are inflamed, events spiral out of control, and lives are placed at stake.
