Elena
Distant echoes of Dostoyevsky ripple through Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev’s chilly crime drama set in a contemporary Moscow that appears lawless, godless and hopeless. The legendary Nadezhda Markina plays a middle-aged nurse facing a desperate dilemma, even contemplating murder to help her impoverished family. As with Zvyagintsev’s other work, from THE RETURN (2003) to LEVIATHAN (2014), this elegantly somber Cannes prizewinner couches bleak social commentary in lyrical beauty.
Nadezhda Markina, Andrey Smirnov, Aleksey Rozin
- Notes From Ari WegnerI could put any film by Andrey Zvyagintsev on this list, but for me the purest distillation of his style is present in ELENA. Modern issues of class are woven into a morality tale revolving around two families and their financial responsibilities. The film’s beautiful use of symbolic images give a sense of foreboding to the actions of the titular main character, who hopes to save her grandson from enlistment by asking her husband to put up the money for a bribe. The script excels in creating a pressure cooker of a situation for Elena, and we care for her enough that her next actions are both horrifying and understandable. Strangely, that conflicted feeling is one of my favorite experiences to have as a viewer—to simultaneously disagree and understand why. Each time I watch it, I am also in awe of the control and precision of Mikhail Krichman’s cinematography. Shots designed to develop in perfect harmony with the suspense, the tensest moments playing out in real time, as well as flawlessly naturalistic lighting—the sunlit morning interiors are pitch perfect. ELENA is a patient, searing portrayal of a corrupt world, leaving you with a conflicted ending where nobody comes out clean.
