Russia's anti-Russian film? Controversial Oscar-nominated 'Leviathan' polarises Russia as Kremlin

pushes for patriotic flicks.


The Kremlin is the biggest sponsor of domestic film production

Leviathan is Russia's biggest cinematic chance at an Oscar in two decades - and a stinging thorn in the Kremlin's side. The film has already won a string of major international prizes and has been shortlisted for an Academy Award in the best foreign language film category. It has also turned into the most debated Russian flick in years.

The brooding drama by Andrey Zvyagintsev awakened a condemning choir of government loyalists who accuse the film's creators of insulting the country's political and spiritual leaders and portraying average Russians as grotesque, vodka-swilling losers. While many critics and filmgoers hail the film's artistic qualities and cold realism, Kremlin officials, artists, and clerics with the Russian Orthodox Church take turns to lambast its negative depiction of modern Russia.

And the hysterical, unforgiving tone of government-controlled media that cover the Leviathan debate resembles Soviet-era campaigns against dissident art. The Russian Orthodox Church, the ultra-conservative, pro-Kremlin institution that claims more than 100 million Russians in its flock, also said Leviathan reiterates the most negative western clichés about the country and its people.

These days, Putin's government can spend millions of taxpayers' dollars on the films that bomb at the box office but vilify Russia's enemies and glorify its triumphs and controversial historic figures - or security services that once employed him and many of his top officials.

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2015/01/russia-anti-russian-film-150128045844943.html