Disclaimer: I am a Russian, although I have been out of the country for some years, I still visit every 2-3 years. I have watched all Zvyagintsev's movies, and this is his most political one yet.
Yes, of course, it is a heart-wrenching portrayal of a broken family relationship and Zvyagintsev's ability to weave your emotions as a rope is superb. The political message is very well hidden and only becomes apparent during the last scene, when Zhenya (the wife) is shown two years after the event, in a new relationship, still unhappy, running unhappily on a treadmill, and wearing a tracksuit that prominently displays word "RUSSIA" on the chest. And that is the key.
As events of the movie quietly unfold, you realize that Zhenya and Boris are not capable of sustaining any basic human relationship. They are unhappy in their existing relationship, but also quickly become unhappy in their new ones. Somehow, you just feel that both might be happier living on their own, but this is also not true, as evidenced by Zhenya's aging mother who is unhappily leaving alone in a house in the middle of nowhere without any desire to see her family members. So they are not happy alone, and they are not happy in a relationship because they don't appear to be able to sustain one for too long. And that is the reason for RUSSIA labeled tracksuit in the last scene. It is Russia as a country that is unhappy - being alone and isolated from the world. Russia is unhappy because it is incapable of sustaining any healthy relationship with anyone else. Using its neighbouring former republics as a shield from NATO? Manipulating regime in Syria to spite Americans and get a foothold in the Middle East? That wouldn't buy you much love. Can you name one country that Russia maintains a healthy relationship with on the basis of mutual trust and respect?
There is a secondary political message too, as portrayed by the poor boy Alyosha. He is unhappy because his parents do not love him. Do you know who is really unhappy? The Russians. It is they who got no love from their country. I felt it while I grew up there and I can vouch that people still pretty much feel the same way even now. Russia does not love Russians. There I said it. Almost all political decisions are made in such a way as to benefit the country as a whole rather than the people. Civil service works in such a way as it becomes unclear whether it is serving you or it is you who is serving them. People are an expendable grey mass that is used to prop up the country. False sense of pride, bolstered by recent military victories, is used a poor substitute for genuine love and care. And you see this in the movie - when Alyosha runs away, the country does not want to spare a dime to find him, outsourcing all work to volunteers.
But it is not all bleak. While Russians are unhappy because they got no love from their country, there is plenty of love to go around because if genuinely deep relationships with their fellow country people. Deeper relationships than I have seen in many other places I visited. Sometimes I feel a lack of deep friendships in the US is because nobody needs to rely on such relationships for survival as the country already takes such good care of its citizens. Russians do not have this luxury. And you again see this in the movie, portrayed by a volunteer group spending countless hours in rain and snow, looking for the boy and doing it entirely for free.
Yes, of course, it is a heart-wrenching portrayal of a broken family relationship and Zvyagintsev's ability to weave your emotions as a rope is superb. The political message is very well hidden and only becomes apparent during the last scene, when Zhenya (the wife) is shown two years after the event, in a new relationship, still unhappy, running unhappily on a treadmill, and wearing a tracksuit that prominently displays word "RUSSIA" on the chest. And that is the key.
As events of the movie quietly unfold, you realize that Zhenya and Boris are not capable of sustaining any basic human relationship. They are unhappy in their existing relationship, but also quickly become unhappy in their new ones. Somehow, you just feel that both might be happier living on their own, but this is also not true, as evidenced by Zhenya's aging mother who is unhappily leaving alone in a house in the middle of nowhere without any desire to see her family members. So they are not happy alone, and they are not happy in a relationship because they don't appear to be able to sustain one for too long. And that is the reason for RUSSIA labeled tracksuit in the last scene. It is Russia as a country that is unhappy - being alone and isolated from the world. Russia is unhappy because it is incapable of sustaining any healthy relationship with anyone else. Using its neighbouring former republics as a shield from NATO? Manipulating regime in Syria to spite Americans and get a foothold in the Middle East? That wouldn't buy you much love. Can you name one country that Russia maintains a healthy relationship with on the basis of mutual trust and respect?
There is a secondary political message too, as portrayed by the poor boy Alyosha. He is unhappy because his parents do not love him. Do you know who is really unhappy? The Russians. It is they who got no love from their country. I felt it while I grew up there and I can vouch that people still pretty much feel the same way even now. Russia does not love Russians. There I said it. Almost all political decisions are made in such a way as to benefit the country as a whole rather than the people. Civil service works in such a way as it becomes unclear whether it is serving you or it is you who is serving them. People are an expendable grey mass that is used to prop up the country. False sense of pride, bolstered by recent military victories, is used a poor substitute for genuine love and care. And you see this in the movie - when Alyosha runs away, the country does not want to spare a dime to find him, outsourcing all work to volunteers.
But it is not all bleak. While Russians are unhappy because they got no love from their country, there is plenty of love to go around because if genuinely deep relationships with their fellow country people. Deeper relationships than I have seen in many other places I visited. Sometimes I feel a lack of deep friendships in the US is because nobody needs to rely on such relationships for survival as the country already takes such good care of its citizens. Russians do not have this luxury. And you again see this in the movie, portrayed by a volunteer group spending countless hours in rain and snow, looking for the boy and doing it entirely for free.