Our theme for tomorrow’s class, “Post-Soviet decay and corruption”, is portrayed in various ways in the film Leviathan. On the surface, the Russian political system depicted in this movie is corrupt, to say the least, but when you look a bit deeper, this film works to depict several other aspects of their reality as corrupt and decaying. Visually speaking, the colors and tones used in the camerawork are dreary and bleak – this is seen everywhere from the washed out skin tone of the characters to the lack of natural color in water bodies and mountain ranges. Where I would expect color, there are only washed out tones of greys and greens, and I think this acts as a commentary on the wider societal reality of the time. The bleakness of the camerawork reflects the very bleakness of the characters and the society in which they are currently living. Most evident is the corruption and decay of the characters and how societal influences have created this in them. There are numerous examples of corruption in one’s character: Lilya cheating on Kolya with Dmitri, Dmitri willingly betraying his dear friend Kolya, the many acts of cruelty of Vadim, and generally, the characters in this film seem overly aggressive in their interactions with others, whether aggression is permitted or not. Kolya resorts to physical violence when he feels at all threatened or upset, as does his son, Roma, and Vadim and his colleagues. Social justice is not a feature in this film, as we see through the broken justice system, and the characters act according to this notion. The emotional states of these characters, similar to some of the Post-Soviet experience, are broken. Not to mention, the prevalence of alcoholism in both the male and female characters speaks to their depressed mental state. Throughout this film, I was reminded of this idea of collectivism and how this type of society was characteristic of the Soviet Union. As it relates to these characters, I noticed a lack of this collectivist mentality – most of these characters operate independently and out of self-interest. Almost every aspect of this film – from the aesthetics and camerawork to the poor
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Transcendent Themes
After watching Leviathan, I could not help but think about the film we watched earlier in the course, Urga: Close to Eden. Though the films are about entirely different periods in Russian history, they focus on similar aspects of Russian culture that we have seen throughout the entire semester: the awe inspiring beauty of Russian nature, the complex relationship between man and nature, and the superfluous man.
First and foremost, both movies display the landscape in similar ways. For example, both movies begin and end with long sweeping scenes of the landscapes without any of the characters. Urga: Close to Eden focuses most on the steppe in reference to how the mongols coexisted with nature and roamed throughout the vast Russian Steppe. Though Leviathan takes place in a very industrialized modern Russia, there is still serious screen time for the Russian coast. The vastness of the steppe and the coast invoke similar emotions of awe and uncertainty in the viewer.
The endings of Leviathan and Urga: Close to Eden also both comment on the complex relationship between man and nature. In Leviathan, nature provides the location for Lilya’s death, which though left unspecified, is likely a suicide. Though there is evidence found that incriminates Kolya, Lilya’s husband, it is possible for that evidence to have been fabricated to make Kolya answer for previous misdemeanors against the corrupt Mayor Vadim. Regardless of the official cause of Lilya’s death, the ominous sea shown throughout the film is directly involved in Lilya’s death. The ending of Urga: Close to Eden shows the steppe where Gombo and his family used to live with a smokestack that has been built there. Though Gombo’s family practiced a fairly traditional Mongol lifestyle, the ending reveals that their fourth son works at the factory that was built in place of the Urga. The endings of both films invoke the complexities involved in the relationship between the Russian land and the Russian people.
A theme that both of these movies share that is unrelated to nature is the trope of the superfluous man. Kolya is stubborn and hotheaded, rarely thinking about what might be best for his family. He is a mechanic who constantly has trouble obeying authority, corrupt as it may be. Lilya is constantly upset with Kolya’s refusal to move on from his trivial arguments with Mayor Vadim that are impossible to win. Gombo refuses to modernize with his wife. He is so afraid of buying contraceptives in front of the women at the pharmacy that he does not buy them at all, even though it would be to the best interest of both him and his wife.