Leviathan, a central figure in the Book of Job, represents the evil that is part of the world and which God lets exist without explanation. The idea that righteous living can lead man to heaven is challenged in the Book - God tells Job, an upright man who suffers endless ills, that His wisdom is not restricted to ideas of evil and vengeance. God has a plan for the universe that cannot be held down in a series of ratiocination. Live the good life for its own sake, not because you seek rewards in its lieu. So says the Book of Job.
Well, if God's plan is imbued in man as faith, that faith is severely tested in Leviathan, director Andrey Zvyagintsev's dark tale of corruption and malice in present-day Russia. The movie notched the Best Foreign Language Film Golden Globe, but lost out to Poland's Ida at the Oscars. Leviathan is the story of small-town mechanic Kolya, who lives by the sea with his wife Lilya and son Roma. The corrupt mayor of the town, Vadim, eyes his property and the film charts the aftermath of the unequal battle between Kolya and Vadim.
Kolya enlists the help of his lawyer friend Dima to fight his case in the court. Dima uses his connections to dig up dirt on Vadim and the friends hope that they would be able to coerce Vadim to part with money in return for Kolya's property. It is a touchingly foolish hope and is shortly crushed.
The movie is a damning indictment of Vladimir Putin and the corrupt plutocracy that he has established in Russia. When Dima visits Vadim to threaten him with a list of the latter's wrongdoings, Mr Putin is present in the room, looking down on the grand mess his regime has engendered from a portrait. In another scene, when Kolya, Dima and friends are out shooting for a lark, one of them brings out portraits of Soviet leaders as targets. There is Lenin, Stalin, Gorbachev.
"No one from the current lot?" Kolya says.
"I've got all kinds of stuff," the friend replies. "But it's too early for the current ones. There is not enough of a historical perspective. Let them ripen up on the wall a bit."
Leviathan shows us how the mendacity of the political class under Mr Putin has already ripened to yield a bitter fruit for Russia's common citizens. Vadim visits the pastor of the local church and in one of those twists that never fail to surprise, seeks vindication for his actions in the name of God. He is properly delivered absolution from the man of religion, who is as steeped in the play of power as the rapacious businessman.
To that extent, Leviathan is a scathing attack on the Orthodox Church and its failure to provide order to Russian life. When one tragedy after another befalls him, Kolya comes across the pastor of the village church (not the same as the pastor Vadim meets) and asks him: "If I lit candles and all, will it be different?" The pastor offers him the story of Job, and advises him to have patience, because "our Lord moves in mysterious ways".
The story of Job that ties the narrative together is akin to a hook into the viewer's chest as he awaits redemption to visit Kolya. But the hook keeps turning. By the end of the film, Kolya is in jail, his wife dead and his son in the hands of a foster family. The idea that there was some grand purpose to his tragedy does not pass muster. There is no explanation for his grief, no rationale for his suffering. Meanwhile, Vadim has enriched himself. In a pitiless scene towards the end, Vadim is in Church listening to his pastor delivering a sermon on "true values".
None of the true values showcased in the film, in keeping with the story of Job, pays off. Dima's courage in the face of Vadim's brute power backfires. Kolya's desire to protect his land and family ends in disaster. Leviathan is an utterly bleak film, and with the knowledge that it represents the situation on the ground in today's Russia, it also becomes a deeply disturbing film.
In the Book of Job, Leviathan is described as a giant sea monster that cannot be controlled. At some places its strength is celebrated while at others the Book offers hope that God will take it down at the end of time. This latter outcome may offer peace to the wounded heart, but to the man looking to God for succour, the wait can be interminable.
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