Where is "Leviathan" filmed? The film "Leviathan": actors and roles, reviews

Recently released on the screens the film "Leviathan", according to many critics, is one of the most important film achievements of Russia over the past few years. As you know, it was this Russian film that was recently awarded the Golden Globe Award and received many more prestigious awards, for example, a prize for the best script, the best male and female roles, editing, etc. Strange as it may seem, the picture was more fond of the Western Audience than the domestic, which is clearly reflected in numerous critical articles.

The first storyline

According to the director himself, in his film he sought to prove that the biblical stories can exist outside the time and space framework. In order to translate his idea, Andrei Zvyagintsev unfolds one of them in front of his audience. The action takes place nowadays in the Russian outback. The very name of the film has many meanings, and it is associated not only with the Bible, which allows us to judge a multi-level storyline. The director was always famous for his profound works, after viewing which always appeared a topic for reasoning. The plot of the film Leviathan, in its deepest sense, is related to the biblical story of Job, which describes a monster embodying all the forces of nature opposed to man. The prototype of this hero is the main character of the film - Nikolai, brilliantly played by Alexei Serebryakov. He honestly works, loves his family, in a word, leads a quiet quiet life in a house near the Barents Sea, built by his great-grandfather. Nicholas considers himself an exemplary Christian, and therefore he is sure that God is favorable to him. However, as in the story with Job, the Almighty has his own plans for this man. On the head of the hero collapses a series of misfortunes and misfortunes. Nicholas has to revise God's message and take it not as punishment, but as a test, get rid of sinful pride and not make meaningless attempts to unravel God's plan.

The second storyline

As mentioned above, "Leviathan" (the film) is not a retelling of the history of Job, it is a multilevel work of cinematic art. At the next semantic level, the spectator has to solve new puzzles. Here the name of Leviathan takes on a new meaning. It is no longer a natural monster that suppresses a person, it is an image of the machine of our state, which, in the process of grinding the human mass, is incapable of recognizing a person. "Leviathan" is a film, the content of which visually demonstrates to the viewer how this machine works. The local government representing the state brutally destroys Nicholas as an individual who ventured to assert his own rights to the land originally belonged to his father and grandfather.

What was the impetus for the birth of the plot?

At one of the Cannes press conferences, Andrei Zvyagintsev said that the choice of the plot was prompted by the famous story of a resident of Colorado, which occurred in 2004, when a bulldozer destroyed several administrative buildings, thereby expressing his dissatisfaction with authorities who refused to recognize the rights of this person. The director noted that such a thing could happen in any country, and added that only by transferring the plot to domestic soil, he realized the existence of the proto-story - the story of Job.

Heroes of the film

Numerous negative reviews about the film "Leviathan" are due precisely to the fact that there is not a single positive hero in the film. All the characters regularly consume alcohol, constantly smoke and swear with mate. The director himself sees in all this the "core" of the life of a simple Russian person, but many viewers perceived this as an insult, as an attempt to blacken Russians in the eyes of the rest of the "civilized" world. In the light of recent events, the view that Leviathan is a film ordered by the West is especially relevant. The Western world really took a picture better than domestic audiences. Perhaps this is due precisely to the images of the heroes, because they only confirm the long-established stereotype, they say, if Russian, then necessarily a frowning drunkard.

Dark landscapes

Already from the very first frames of the film, we see Russia in exceptionally gloomy tones, fanned with hopelessness, like a kind of fog. The sad morning scenery of the old Murmansk town where Leviathan was filmed is really reminiscent of Western films about Russia, which are mostly filmed in Eastern Europe. However, everything here is much more straightforward. The picture did not promise bright colors to its audience, only a gloomy city, mired in melancholy and hopelessness. Of course, in real life, where there are no cameras and ideas of the director, everything is different. Filming took place in the almost abandoned village of the Murmansk region, in Teriberka. For this region of Russia, such places are rather exotic than ordinary. The locals themselves insist that in reality their land looks not so bad as it was filed in the film. However, as is known, there are no halftones in art, it is simply unprofitable. Therefore, the very terrain, and the moral appearance of the inhabitants of the town, where the "Leviathan" is filmed, are shown in the picture solely on a gloomy side. Zvyagintsev demonstrates only that which disgusts: old rotting ships, broken dirt roads and a whale skeleton ... There are everywhere a terrible dust, gray torn walls of buildings, and people are dressed like beggars of the Civil War in Tajikistan in the 90s. Everyone who has visited Murmansk at least once knows exactly how beautiful this northern edge is, so the reviews about the film "Leviathan" are full of remarks about the fact that the director distorts the real picture of reality. There were also those who supported Zvyagintsev's plan. According to the latter, there is nothing wrong with the fact that the overall picture of the area looks slightly exaggerated. The most important thing is to convey the idea, and to make it much easier when it is expressed clearly.

Is everything so bad in Teriberka?

Yes, a lot of talk and gossip caused the picture "Leviathan" Zvyagintsev. Where you shot this film, you already know. With the release of the picture on the world screens, many were simply stunned: do they really live so badly in Russia? Many correspondents of foreign newspapers and TV channels went to the village where the film was filmed, to see for their own eyes what is happening here. Teriberka became a true symbol of the decline of the North of Russia, which, in fact, confirms the plot of the film "Leviathan". In fact, everything is not so bad here. At one time, Teriberk was considered a regional center, it was a town-type settlement, rapidly increasing in size. However, in the early 60's all the major activities moved to Severomorsk, due to which the village gradually began to decline. The village head, Tatyana Trubilina, blames the exaggeration of Leviathan Zvyagintsev: "Where did all this horror, poverty and unemployment?" She said that only 10% of the entire population of the village do not have a job; Here there is a wonderful house of culture, there is a library equipped with computers and other necessary equipment. The chapter also recalls the merits of the Teriberian folk choir. Of course, Zvyagintsev had no intention of insulting the village where Leviathan was filmed and its residents. Do not forget that the movie is designed to reflect reality through a magnifying glass, exaggerating some details, and the director is only trying to identify the problems of the Russian outback as brightly as possible.

Total disruption in the interiors of the film

The main character of the film, Nikolai, lives with his family in the old, seen house. To make the story even more dramatic, the director emphasizes that the family does not live the hero, but literally survives. The interior of the house where the Leviathan was filmed is full of elements of poverty. Everything that has accumulated in the old warehouses of Mosfilm was used here to once again emphasize the inferiority of the life of the characters. This is indicated literally by all: bronze faucets, plastic figurines, an ancient sham door, and shabby washed blankets. Each episode reveals to the viewer the daily life of Nikolai, the shabby walls of his father's house, empty dips instead of windows ...

Russian without vodka anywhere!

Already on the 25th minute of the tape the theme of alcohol begins to gain momentum. Vodka here acts as the patroness of all provincial inhabitants. Many critics say that "Leviathan" is a film whose content is based on vodka as a key element of the everyday life of a Russian person. This drink here is drunk in a simple way: from faceted glasses, without any snack, like some kind of lemonade. All this, according to the director, was made with only one purpose - to demonstrate the ordinary Russian person, who is in a state of constant depression and deep depression. In the movie Zvyagintsev drink everything: the main character himself, his walking wife, traffic cops, the mayor, even children drink beer in a destroyed church. All the existing problems the characters of the film are accustomed to solve by drinking, which is not alien to real people living in provincial cities, where poverty reigns and despair.

In the finals, evil wins

Unfortunately, the ending is tragic. Selling local judges read the verdict to Nicholas, the plot does not leave even a shadow of hope for something better, brighter. As already mentioned above, the impetus for creating the picture was the story of an American who challenged the arbitrariness of officials. However, if in the United States they shot a film about this man, he would act as a real hero, would appear as a fighter for justice. The film "Leviathan" differs drastically in this respect. Russia presents the main character as flawed and insignificant. The character of Serebryakov - an alcoholic and a fool, to whom his wife changes, he seems to be the personification of all possible stereotypes about the Russian person.

The Church as a source of evil

The completion of the film was the ten-minute preaching of the priest, who talked about the events taking place in the world, praised the Russian people and their victories over filth. In the film, the minister of the church plays the role of political instructor, who hides true problems and human pain, covering it all with a veil of good. All this long sermon with genuine attention is listened to by those local corrupt officials who have just taken the house of a simple peasant and ruined his already hard life. The director reveals to his viewer an all-consuming injustice, which is also justified by the cleric. This makes us think about the mission of the clergy in modern society. At the end of the service the viewer sees that in place of the old house of Nicholas, a small but good temple, designed for the urban elite, has grown. Both the mayor and the local top officials are happy. According to the authors, the church is presented in an even worse light than the corrupt officials, not an institution that brings faith and hope to people, but a real evil.

Criticism of the film

Long before its appearance on the screens the film split Russia into two camps, the heated debate between which has not abated so far. Some argue that Leviathan is the best film, praise the film, considering it to be a reliable reflection of the life of people of Putin's era, while others, on the contrary, condemn the director for promoting anti-Russian sentiments. Many associate this reaction of our compatriots with the aggravation of the Ukrainian crisis and the pressure of the West on Russia. Particularly massively rebelled the public after the Golden Globe Award, which, in fact, meant the West's approval of Russophobic, in the opinion of some, sentiments. Certainly, the film of the year "Leviathan" deserves attention. To look at it costs at least in order to try to understand what the director wanted to say, to think about the future of our country.

Despite all the tragedy of the plot and the conflicting opinions of critics, the picture is worthy of the highest praise, because she touched everyone alive who saw her alive. Whether it's a foreign viewer or a domestic one, everyone was horrified in the course of the viewing, thought: what awaits us ahead? In large cities, life flows in a different way, especially abroad. Shocking cadres of heroes' complete despair suggest how much more remains to be done for our country to protect its citizens from such a life, if such an existence can be called life in general. We completely forgot how simple village people live, we complain about our problems, which, in comparison with the frankly oppressive atmosphere of the desperation of the film, seem insignificant. "Leviathan" carries a multitude of meanings at the same time, there is something to ponder on. Zvyagintsev's ambiguity is ambiguous, the content of the tape can be viewed from different angles and change one's opinion with each new viewing. Scenes of the movie really shake. It is these frames that are not forgotten, they seem to settle somewhere deep down.