«Левиафан» Звягинцева покажут на BFI

8-19 октября пройдет лондонский кинофестиваль BFI. На 17 киноплощадках покажут 248 фильмов (как премьер, так и ретроспективных показов). И среди них — ура! — «Левиафан» Андрея Звягинцева, который, напомним, получил приз за лучший сценарий на фестивале в Каннах.

Вот что пишут о фильме члены отборочной комиссии BFI:

What’s it about?

Andrey Zvyagintsev’s new film won the best screenplay award at Cannes and was a close competitor for the coveted Palme d’Or. Set on the Kola Peninsula, not far from the Russian border with Finland, it tells of the conflict between Kolya, who owns a house on the seashore, and the mayor of a local town, who wants to purchase his land for redevelopment. Kolya enlists the help of a childhood friend, who now practices as a lawyer in Moscow.  A domestic drama runs in parallel with the ‘political’ drama with Kolya eventually losing on both fronts.

Who made it?

Zvyagintsev initially studied acting, but is now recognised as one of Russia’s leading directors. His first film The Return (2003) was a surprise hit at the Venice Film Festival and this was followed by The Banishment (2007) and Elena (2011), both of which attracted wide attention and gained British releases. While perhaps misleadingly heralded as the successor to Andrei Tarkovsky, the depth, complexity and resonance of his work always takes us beyond the surface nature of his material.

What’s special about it?

It’s easy to interpret his latest film as a commentary on contemporary Russia, with the law serving those in power and religion providing a kind of ideological gloss. Yet, as Zvyaginstev is careful to point out, the story was actually inspired by events in the USA – the case of a steelworker in Colorado whose property was confiscated and subsequently drove a bulldozer into the town’s administrative buildings. Thus, his theme is also universal, with its symbolic content emphasised through the film’s remote setting and the visual symbol of the skeleton of a beached whale – its precise meaning left to our imagination.

Of course, to those with a nodding acquaintance with Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan also symbolises the state – and to follow the parallel, life also seems to be both nasty and brutish. But Leviathan is a film of many levels, and its meaning is left to the interaction between film and viewer.

Показ «Левиафана» пройдет 14 октября в 20:30 в  кинотеатре Odeon West End и 17 октября в 21:00 в Curzon Mayfair Cinema. Открыта продажа билетов, но пока только — для тех, у кого есть членство. Чтобы не пропустить начало продаж для всех, проверяйте ссылку >>>.

А здесь вы можете посмотреть полную программу фестиваля. Впрочем, мы будем к нему еще возвращаться и напомним вам о самом интересном из того, что нас на нем ждет.