Elena
All Films • 1h 49m
Andrey Zvyagintsev • 2011 • Russia • A woman fights for what's hers after her husband's death
Delving into the psyche of a morally ambiguous female protagonist, and featuring a haunting score by Philip Glass, Elena is a bold and stylish study of crime and punishment in contemporary Russia
Elena is a woman of a certain age, living in a chic Moscow apartment with her wealthy businessman husband. Here she is treated more like a housewife than a lover, perhaps retaining the vestiges her status as Vladimir's former nurse. While Vladimir is estranged from his daughter, he does not mask his contempt for Elena's own children, who seem to be in constant need of financial assistance. When Vladimir suddenly falls ill and his volatile, nihilistic daughter comes back into the picture, Elena must hatch a plan for her own survival.
Andrey Zvyagintsev's third feature premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, where it won a Special Jury Prize. Elena is a New York Times Critics' Pick.
Up Next in All Films
-
Elles
Malgoska Szumowska • 2011 • France
A reporter investigates Paris's underground prostitution scene.
Anne is a middle-aged journalist for Elle Magazine in Paris, assigned to investigate the city's underground prostituti...
-
Exhibition
Joanna Hogg • UK • 2014 • The vicissitudes of class privilege among an ostensibly bohemian couple.
D and H are both artists. They are also a couple. They have, furthermore, decided to sell their modernist home in L...
-
Flanders
Bruno Dumont • France • 2006 • An age-old tale of love and war starring nonprofessional actors.
Demester lives a hardscrabble life as a farmer in rural Belgium. Amid the rugged, unforgiving landscape, he lives a lo...
