User Reviews

I read all the comments and I think that the majority of them just missed the point. I think that we have an interesting glance on the life in post-socialistic Russia. A friend from Bulgary wrote a few things about that. I would like to add that the main point is that a woman who looks good and carrying about her son and her family, and despite she is religious, is driven to crime, as the only way to help her unemployed son. What made that possible? The great fortunes that have been accumulated, something not seen during the soviet era (at least legally), in contrast with the poverty, unemployment etc.

Others points: the necessity to have money in order to study. The new lifestyle of drugs and spoiled daughter. The role of TV, showing garbage all the time.Tthe unemployed son who doesn't make an effort to find a job (obviously been spoiled by the previous regime where there you didn't need to struggle in order to have a job, it was offered easily). The new 'fashion' of gangs and the lethal encounters they indulged in.

Russia underwent a real shock all these years, just imagine that is one of the countries that had decreased limit of expected life by 5 years!

The acting and the directing was good enough. In general an interesting film, not a masterpiece, but worth seeing.

Yes, this is slow-moving but it is such an accurate portrayal of post-Soviet life in today's Russia that you overlook the lack of a lot of action to focus on the characters and the milieu in which they live. We have it all here -- an oligarch, an indulged son due to an indulgent mother, the haves and the have-nots. Maybe I appreciated it more than the average viewer because I have lived in Eastern Europe and am familiar with post-Soviet Russian culture. While the oligarch lives in a beautiful flat and drives a luxury car to his trendy gym, the worker bees (or should I say non-worker bees) live in a prototypical dilapidated housing block and walk miles to the train. A ne'er do well adolescent takes out his sense of hopelessness on those below even him on the socio-economic ladder. Raskolnikov lives!!

First I'd like to say that I really understand the point of all disappointed Zvyagintsev fans after his two previous films:Izgnanie and Vozvrashchenie .These movies were "global", not only Russian, but "for all people".

This movie is strictly Russian and thats why people did'n like it. In my opinion this movie shows the real greatness of this wonderful director Andrey Zvyagintsev. He could continue making "global" movies "for the world". like Iñárritu or for the end of it like LvT, but he is a Russian and he made film about the moral situation in Russia.

In 2009 Zvyagintsev was offered 8 million $ from producer Oliver Dungey to make a film for the end of the world like "The Sacrifice"1986 .I guess that LvT took the money and did "Melancholia".Instead Zvyagintsev did "Elena", and this is the end of the world for him: "the end of the world as we know it" as Charles Foster Kane is saying."Elena' is the end of the "moral world" as we know it, at least for Zvyagintsev.

This film is about existential values, no other values exist in post-communist, pseudo-religious Russia.There are only TV values.We can only hear the "TV preachings" throughout the movie and actually see the screen just at the end when the family stays at the apartment of the killed man.So what happens: A rich man is killed by his wife who is a former nurse, because he do not to put her in his will and the family of her unemployed son with three kids will stay without support.

"The last will be first." says Elena just before to kill in cold blood his husband. The mother will do everything for her child and grandchildren. Love is evil,like Zizek says.In the name of love ,millions of people has been killed.The love towards one is hatred towards somebody else.The main principle in universe is scarcity, Sartr says.There isn't enough love nor yet enough money for everyone.So what we people do? We kill.We kill for money,we kill for love ...we kill for oil!" A time to kill and a time to heal. A time to tear down and a time to build up." like they say in the Bible.

This movie is a mixture of "The Shop on Main Street"1965, "Crimes and Misdemeanors"1989, "Uzak" 2002 and "Cargo 200" 2007 so before to judge "Elena" please watch these movies first.

I think that "Elena"it is a real 21-st century film.It is film about "The banality of evil". Evil which is part of us all, the evil of everyday life. It is an open question of the moral values of the contemporary society. The question is coming from Russia and from all the former communist countries : How to live now ,when the "evil empire" of communism is dead. Where is the moral superiority of the capitalism? In the "world with TV Religion" is it OK to kill an old and ill man and to take the money in the name of children?

GREAT GREAT FILM.THANK YOU ZVYAGINTSEV.

This is one of the most perfect, "round", films I have seen in many years. Nothing is out of place, every scene has a deep meaning in the plot. And the overall result is nearly perfect, with a clear-cut conclusion.

Many have understood this film as a criticism/description of current Russian society. And they are not mistaken at all, it is true. But there is more to it, much more: a universal trait, one that I have never seen depicted previously on film with such precision and cleverness. The central topic of the film can be enunciated by the saying "Blood is thicker than water". Some previous reviewers have aptly pointed out this too.

The plot is entirely constructed to come to this final conclusion. In the meantime we are also shown aspects of current Russian society, such as violence and lack of values in adolescents, strained family relations between the old and new Russian generations (with marked differences in life values), the lavish but often solitary life of old men who have amassed large amounts of money...

But the central point is the relation of Elena with, on the one hand, her aged affluent husband, who provides her with a very comfortable life that most women her age would be delighted and satisfied with, and on the other hand with her son (and son's family) from a previous marriage, her "real" family in terms of blood ties. Her son is an absolute opposite to her husband: mediocrity vs. intelligence, weak character vs. determination and strength, idleness vs. diligence, failure vs. success, poverty vs. richness. One can easily come to the conclusion that her son fully deserves the misery he and his family live in. Elena helps her son and daughter-in-law on her husband's resources, but when he says "enough!"... conflict ensues, and here is when blood imposes its biological determining force.

The final scene of the film, with the little grandson of Elena lying carelessly and comfortably on her husband's bed is at once tender and haunting! one of the best ends I've ever seen in cinema. Now join the opening scene with the final one, and you close the circle, the whole film is contained there.

Don't miss it, this is a film you will not forget. It will become a classic, for me it is one of them already. The best Zvyagintsev's film so far, The Return and Leviathan being both highly recommended too.

Elena is a film that's hard to talk about without giving the plot away completely, mostly because there isn't that much of a plot to begin with. It's a meticulous and brutal realist story with a brief intermission of a suspenseful, if distinctly strange, crime story.

The central conflict is between the ideas of worth and charity -- in other words, between the idealistic justifications of capitalism and communism. This is especially relevant to both contemporary Russia and the broader economic standpoint. Elena's relatives are, and this is refreshing, not your ideal welfare candidates disadvantaged by the system -- they *are* disadvantaged by the system, but they're also a little bit lazy and a little bit needy, and not entirely that likable. Elena's actions are nicely ambiguous, as she simultaneously gives and takes away, is hero and villain. This film is smarter than most in refusing to side entirely with either individual or societal explanations. Still, in the end it does seem to tip a bit too heavy towards the demonization of Elena's family -- the final shot, with the child left alone in potential danger, feels borderline insulting.

Nazehda Markina and Andrey Smirnov do an excellent job as the central couple, managing to create an air of quiet despair around themselves and especially around the two of them as a couple. Andrey Zyvagintsev makes the picture look great, but he seems to linger too much on mundanity, even for an art-house film like this. There's a fine line between being meditative and being dull, and Elena sits precariously on it. In the end, I can't help but think that this would have made a great short film but is a baggy feature. But the core ideas still shine through, so perhaps it's a success on its own terms.

I found this Russian drama, impeccably directed by Andrey Zyagintsev, to be spellbinding and powerful. Zyagintsev has an amazing way of producing a constant tension, even when the most mundane acts of daily living are being carried out.

Nadezhna Markina is pitch perfect as Elena, a retired nurse, who is now married to the wealthy Vladimir(superbly portrayed by Andrey Smirnov). They live in a beautiful apartment is Moscow. Although they are only married two years, their relationship apparently began ten years before when Elena was Vladimir's nurse in the hospital.

However, Elena's son Sergei, his wife Tanya, their older son Sasha, and a baby boy live "on the other side of the tracks" in a run down area. Each month, against Vlkadimir's wishes Elena collects her pension and takes a train and a bus to visit her family and give them money to help support them. Vladimir thinks that Sergei is an idler and is also not happy that Sergei has not returned a loan from three years back.

Elena has asked her husband to help her grandson Sasha bribe his way into a university, so that he doesn't have to serve in the Army. When Vladimir expresses his reluctance Elena points out that he has no qualms about supporting his daughter who is bitter, ungrateful, and irresponsible. This, of course, causes all kinds of friction between Vladimir and Elena, although overall they seem to have a loving relationship.

One day, Vladimir suffers a heart attack while swimming in the gym. He is eventually released and starts recovering at home with Elena acting as his nurse.

He tells her that he's meeting with his attorney the following day to draw up a will. He will leave the bulk of his estate to his daughter but that Elena will receive a generous monthly annuity. He also tells her that he's made a final decision and will not help her grandson financially.

This sets off a series of events which if I disclosed would be complete spoilers. Let's just say the events take a dark turn and Zyagintsev handles it masterfully. I was riveted to the screen. With the powerful musical score in the background, the tension in the final parts of the film is maintained extremely well.

I would highly recommend this movie to those that enjoy foreign dramas with a cohesive and strong storyline.

This entry has 'Art House' writ large on every frame so it was gratifying to share Screen 2 of my local art house with about 25 other buffs. This appears to be the type of film which encourages viewers to interpret in their own way and already I have read about society, morality, motivation and God knows what. It may well be about all these things, none of them, or all of them and more but it boils down to one man, Andrey Smirnov, choosing his dissolute daughter over his second wife, Nadezhda Markina, thus forcing the wife to act decisively (and arguably immorally and illegally. What we learn via the eye-dropper approach to Back Story is that the extremely wealthy Vladimir met Elena whilst in the hospital where she was his nurse. This was some ten years ago but they have only been married for two. Both have grown children and neither are anything to be proud of. Vladimir's daughter is, by his own admission, a hedonist and Elena's son is unemployable and unable to support his family without Elena's pension which she collects each week and then takes a train to his ghetto to hand over to him. The film makes much of the Us and Them that is post-Communist Russia and makes it easy to see why many older Russians are on record that life was better under Stalin, presumably on the basis that in those days EVERYBODY was miserable whereas today only the Have-nots are. In terms of pace we're talking heavily sedated sloth but this is not necessarily bad. The acting and camera-work are first-rate but I wouldn't want to view it again for about a decade or so.

I watched Zvyagintsev's first film 'The Return', but have to admit I much preferred this, his third film, finding it more accessible but still a subtle piece of work.

I viewed the film as a comment on contemporary Russia, a character study/ portrait of a morganatic marriage as well as a wider comment on society, & the dark side of both the working/upper (moneyed) classes.

At the beginning of the film, Elena has already made an accommodation and personal sacrifice in her marriage/relationship with an older richer man, Vladimir, where she is nothing more than a glorified drudge. She appears a docile, a dutiful wife and mother, her caring nature exploited by a feckless son and then subject to the caprices of her husband who calls the (economic) shots, but as the film unfolds, she becomes far a more complex figure and we view her & her acts with ambivalence, and more with an element of sympathy than horror.

This is a film where lines reverberate or provide an ironic comment on the story. For instance, feckless Sergei gets distracted playing a computer game with his son, Sasha, as he tries to help him 'get to the next level', a comment, you feel, more about how to get on in Russian society (and perhaps not just Russia but beyond, too). The contrasts are slowly built up scene by scene: the luxurious, spacious flat with a giant modern flat screen TV in contrast to the cramped flat lying on the fringes in the shadow of a disused power station (a metaphor for the powerless underclass left behind by post-communist Russia); Elena has to travel by foot & public transport whilst Vladimir travels to his exclusive gym in a luxurious car; and the contrast between the 'dowdy' Elena and stylish Katya.

The entry of Vladimir's daughter, Katya, changes the dynamic of the film and provides a fascinating counter-point to Elena. It is almost as if two different Russias, one modern, cold & cynical meets its older, more traditional counter-part with the younger & older woman barely lacking anything in common. Or so we think on first impression. Katya is a spoilt hedonist, existential in attitudes such as a lack in interest in motherhood and continuing 'the disease'. She connects intellectually with her father in a way that he never does with his social inferior,Elena, and this is because, as one perceptive reviewer pointed out, both share a similar sense of detachment and lack of feeling for others. Again, Katya utters a line which acquires significance as the film unfolds. During a moment of reconciliation with her father, a man she doesn't give a damn for, Katya remembers the childhood games that 'taught her the harsh realities about being an adult'.

But it is Elena who must learn the dark lesson about what she must do to survive the game ('the last will be first') , the law of self-preservation, and how good people are sometimes forced to do bad things to survive & damn themselves - contrast the scene in the church lighting a candle with the flaming basket, spouting hellfire, as Elena burns her husband's draft will - in order to protect their loved ones in an unequal society.

I'm not sure about viewing the film as a condemnation of the Russian male & the lack of a good male role model. What about Putin? isn't he an alpha male who rules the country in a 21st century manner but a continuation of a one thousand years of authoritarian rule albeit now in the media age of TV shows providing in-depth reviews on sausages (contrast with the sale of reading matter on the train, the Russians are known as a nation of voracious readers). And Katerina, in her own way, is just as feckless as her male working class parallel, Sergei. Both drink, are indifferent towards their parents & selfish. No, I see the film as about how Russia has lost its moral compass (with Ukraine now in the role as Elena with Vladimir/Putin supplying cash & oil if the Ukraine obliges for an occasional bit of rumpy pumpy).

If the people at the top are corrupt, and Vladimir 'uses' Elena sexually, so then must those at the bottom if they are to survive. A bleak message but an honest one. What was that old Marx said about religion being 'the opium of the people'? It's misquoted because Marx did not disapprove of the religious impulse, because he saw it as 'the sigh of the oppressed creature in a heartless world.' And that's what Elena has to become, heartless, to survive, because you have to live on this earth.