Loveless

Director: Andrey Zvyagintsev

2018, Russia, 129, R

Screenwriter: Andrey Zvyagintsev and Oleg Negin.

Cast: Maryana Spivak, Aleksey Rosin, Matvey Novikov.

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The breakup of Zhenya (Maryana Spivak) and Boris (Aleksey Rosin) comes at the expense of their 12-year-old son Alyosha, who vanishes during one of their verbal battles. His disappearance is a mystery that takes you deep into the corruption barely hidden below the surface – in this case, an urban upper middle class that stays on top with bribes, betrayals and fear. Zhenya and Boris’ ambivalent search for their son stands in the way of making fresh starts with their new partners. Although critic Cary Darling compared Loveless to “Ingmar Bergman’s Scenes from a Marriage dipped in battery acid,” Zvyagintsev’s Academy Award®-nominated entry for Best Foreign Film is an original parable of life in Russia today.  

“Andrey Zvyagintsev can’t come right out and declare the full corruption of his society, but he can make Loveless, which takes an ominous, reverberating look not at the politics of Russia but at the crisis of empathy at the culture’s core.” – Robin Pomeroy, Reuters News Service.