Shown: January 5, 2015 at 6pm
Director : Andrey Zvyagintsev
Country : Russia
Release Date : 2014
Duration : 140 mins
Language : Russian
Subtitles : Yes
WINNER : PALME D’OR AT 2014 CANNES FILM FESTIVAL
SHORT-LISTED : BEST FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM AT 2015 OSCARS
A Russian fisherman fights back when a corrupt mayor tries to seize possession of his ancestral home. The house and land have been in his family for years; he lives there with his wife and son, and doesn’t intend to leave. He summons an old friend from Moscow, now a lawyer, to help him fight the case. But corruption is a way of life in the community, and even the clever attorney has trouble outfoxing the unscrupulous mayor and his loyal bureaucracy.
“The great trial of Job is reborn in this magnificent Russian movie, compelling in its moral seriousness, with a severity and force that escalate into a terrible, annihilating sort of grandeur. Zvyagintsev combines an Old Testament fable with something like Tarkovsky’s ‘The Sacrifice’.” (Peter Bradshaw – The Guardian)