In a Russian coastal town, Kolya is forced to fight the corrupt mayor when he is told that his house will be demolished. He recruits a lawyer friend to help, but the man's arrival brings further misfortune for Kolya and his family.
In the Russian wilderness, two brothers face a range of new, conflicting emotions when their father - a man they know only through a single photograph - resurfaces.
Director:
Andrey Zvyagintsev
Stars:
Vladimir Garin,
Ivan Dobronravov,
Konstantin Lavronenko
Georges and Anne are an octogenarian couple. They are cultivated, retired music teachers. Their daughter, also a musician, lives in Britain with her family. One day, Anne has a stroke, and the couple's bond of love is severely tested.
Dima Nikitin is an ordinary honest plumber who suddenly decides to face the corrupt system of local politics in order to save the lives of 800 inhabitants of an old dormitory, which is about to collapse.
A prestigious Stockholm museum's chief art curator finds himself in times of both professional and personal crisis as he attempts to set up a controversial new exhibit.
A cattle herder and his family who reside in the dunes of Timbuktu find their quiet lives -- which are typically free of the Jihadists determined to control their faith -- abruptly disturbed.
On the outskirts of a small coastal town in the Barents Sea, where whales sometimes come to its bay, lives an ordinary family: Kolya (Aleksey Serebryakov), his wife Lilya (Elena Lyadova) and their teenage son Romka. The family is haunted by a local corrupted mayor (Roman Madyanov), who is trying to take away the land, a house and a small auto repair shop from Kolya. To save their homes Kolya calls his old Army friend in Moscow (Vladimir Vdovichenkov), who has now become an authoritative attorney. Together they decide to fight back and collect dirt on the mayor.Written by
iggy
The film was criticized by the Russian Ministry of Culture - who had provided 35% of its funding - for its negative depiction of ordinary Russians. The Ministry took exception to its picture of Russians as being lazy and hard-drinking, hardly the type of image the country wanted to foster abroad. Despite this, the film was submitted as Russia's entry for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and was rewarded with an Oscar nomination. See more »
Quotes
Lilya:
It's all my fault.
Dmitriy Seleznyov:
No such thing. Each of us is guilty of our own faults. Everything is everybody's fault. Even if we confess, the law doesn't hold it to be proof of guilt.We're innocent until proven guilty. But who's to prove anything? And to whom?
Lilya:
Do you believe in God?
Dmitriy Seleznyov:
Why do you all keep asking me about God? I believe in facts. I'm a lawyer Lilya.
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From the first five minutes, I was appealed to this movie more than 3/4 of what I've seen this year. It was dark, it was beautifully shot, and established its characters nicely. People complain it took too long for the characters to be established and that the story took too long to unfold. Haven't you heard of visual storytelling? As it plays out, you find out the dark shadows that follow each character and who they really are in the situation they're in. From the wife (most interesting character), to the step- son of the wife. The father is a dark character that is strained beyond limits, and the fantastic acting portrayed by the father is just one of the great performances done by all the actors and actresses. It fights the bond of love, land, and power. The corruption that still stands tall in Russia and its small towns that surround the leviathan that is the story. It unravels extremely slow, but thats what makes more of an impact. The over-thirty second shot of the woman in court explaining the case is so well done, you can really just see the effort put into each role in the film. If only American films could be so well thought out. For any person who has the near two and a half hour time to watch a superb film, sit down and immerse yourself into the gloomy world that inhabits these characters. It teaches you, it haunts you, it stays with you.
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From the first five minutes, I was appealed to this movie more than 3/4 of what I've seen this year. It was dark, it was beautifully shot, and established its characters nicely. People complain it took too long for the characters to be established and that the story took too long to unfold. Haven't you heard of visual storytelling? As it plays out, you find out the dark shadows that follow each character and who they really are in the situation they're in. From the wife (most interesting character), to the step- son of the wife. The father is a dark character that is strained beyond limits, and the fantastic acting portrayed by the father is just one of the great performances done by all the actors and actresses. It fights the bond of love, land, and power. The corruption that still stands tall in Russia and its small towns that surround the leviathan that is the story. It unravels extremely slow, but thats what makes more of an impact. The over-thirty second shot of the woman in court explaining the case is so well done, you can really just see the effort put into each role in the film. If only American films could be so well thought out. For any person who has the near two and a half hour time to watch a superb film, sit down and immerse yourself into the gloomy world that inhabits these characters. It teaches you, it haunts you, it stays with you.