MovieChat Forums > Leviathan (2015) Discussion > people who didn't get it!!! film explain...

people who didn't get it!!! film explained SPOLIERS!

posted 10 years ago by dimbost
20 replies | jump to latest

Koyla is simple guy who is good at using his hand. He build his house fixes every ones cars,etc.. he says that they have already lost other appeals... and he is not legally smart

Koylas wife is tired of being called names by the son, after his mothers death... Knowing that Koyla is now only obsessed with complaining about everything, being it from helping people. government taking his house, the corruption, complaining why his friend shoots all the bottles on his birthday, in a nut shell he is complaining why his life sucks, Koyla is portrayed as a Pessimist. Dimitri on the other hand is an optimist, he has constantly belief that things will work out and that all hurdles will be concurred. Thats why she sleeps with him.

3 people in the Mayors office, are the chief of police, the prosecutor and the court official. All of them have purpose to indicate that the reason why his claims were never taken by nobody wasn't because of "no one is here" or some other potential excuses but because they are in the same boat as the Mayor.

Dimitri and Kolyas wife, was only a fling, she wanted to escape the harsh reality of her husband losing control and blaming everything, her future life leaving in a 1 run down bedroom apartment that looks like some homeless people got evicted from. When Dimitri tells her come with me, she asks what you mean, because she feels and knows that their have no future together, whether it be that Dimitri already has a family and says that because he feels it's his fault that their got caught or that they did it.
Dimitri Left after the threats for various reason, Kolya was no longer his brother and despised him, Kolyas Wife chose her husband over him, he no longer had any emotional attachments to the case. Before he was helping him whether it was because of his need to help his "Brother" army comrade and to sleep with his wife, now there is none of that, but also we can not certain that Dimitri didn't have a daughter and he left because of the threat of the mayor towards last words for your daughter.

Kolyas wife clearly commits suicide, that is because Roma hates her now even more and wishes that she wasn't here, she lives with a man that despite's her and hates himself, she gets up to never ending job which has no purpose in life, and she feels that she has no purpose in life. Also it is very evident that she is standing looking into the ocean by herself.

Last the church. we are told by Kolya near the start of movie that the land where his house is built is prime land, maybe because of its location to the bridge and easy access around other areas where it is next to a mountain or something. We are told that the real value of the house and land is some where around 3-3.5 million Rubles not the 600 thousand. the abandon church was somewhere on the hill and in every shot that they showed exterior, showed no roads and uneven grounds, we do not known what happened to that church. So there is no need to justify by saying they could have easily rebuilt it, maybe no one went to the church because they needed to climb rocks, and go uphill near a cliff to get to it.
Also all the cars leaving the church were mostly 4x4 and expensive cars, showed that this church was built for the "rich"
so the prime location and easy access, Car park right next to the church no walking needed, all add up to comfort factor.

[–] ehsndlr 10 years ago

hey. thank you!

[–] dimbost 10 years ago

thats okay.

[–] inbolivia 10 years ago

thanks it is interesting what you wroteabout the churches. i included that into my thread 'religious parallels'. i am curious what the general message the movie was trying to convey about religion. if you can read my thread and reply i will appreciate it.

[–] maralanca 10 years ago

I don't think that she committed suicide. She was killed by the mayor's people.

[–] dimbost 10 years ago

it was very obvious that she committed suicide

[–] AimC 10 years ago

Yea the only doubt I had was when the detective said she was killed by blunt trauma to the head and matching weapon was found on Kolya's property. Could've been extra "evidence" piled on by the mayor's people.

[–] Liquid_Ozymandias 9 years ago

How do you cause blunt trauma to the back of your own head? Vadim had her killed.

Come at the king, you best not miss.

[–] Lethal_007 9 years ago

That may very well be the case, especially since the director himself admitted that - but it's FAR, but very FAR from being obvious. While it certainly gives that idea at first, when they mentioned the blunt force trauma from the hammer, it draws viewers to the idea that she was killed rather than having committed suicide.

My theory links both scenarios: she killed herself, after authorities found her body, they informed the mayor, or his people, and the "murder" was easily fabricated by grabbing a hammer from Kolya's toolshed and hit her corpse with it... Or they simply did not even bothered with that, depends on how accurate of a fabrication they went with. In a "normal" world, it would easily be detected that the trauma was post mortem, but in this case, who really cares... Everyone's on the payroll, so, it doesn't really matter.

[after killing an Irish] Burn him, see if his ashes turn green - Bill the Butcher

[–] speedy1383 10 years ago

Director on the commentary basically said it was suicide. He also said that he thought about other versions for this-the boy killing her and the mayor's people. But it was pretty much established that she ended her life.

[–] [email protected] 10 years ago

Yes, i agree - because we last see the mayor finding out Zoyla was found guilty and got 15 years. His reply was "Good. that'll teach him to know his place." Doesn't that sound that the mayor was intent on teaching him lesson -?

[–] Tin_ear 9 years ago

That's the impression I got.

[–] jukam 10 years ago

Old church (representing old values), presumably burnt down by communists, is ruined and demolished along with the values we used to hold dear, and new one is in a making for new people and new values.

New people being a new breed of persons integrated in new values such as: Get reach fast on expanse of others, where feeling good about yourself comes first to real accomplishments, where immorality and thievery are promoted, where hard work and modesty are ridiculed and marginalized, where nobody questions where the wealth comes from and the only important thing who has and who has not regardless of the way they got it.

So this movie tries to describe new post-communist times where one of the pillars of morality, the Church, has become Leviathan - the twisted monster of modern times, silent promoter of new “values” and a valued partner of forever corrupted government in exploiting the common folk.

New Church (read new values) likes expensive cars, it likes rich people, it likes brute force and ignorance, and despise all of those who are not all of that.

Hence: You have no rights! You never had any rights!

[–] captinmasr 10 years ago

Nice Explanation , Thanks :)

[–] TheCinemator 10 years ago

It seems to me this town needed the Church. Needed a new start. Nearly every shot in the first two acts showed the town in decay. Along with the bones of Leviathan, the town was it's own Leviathan.

The town needed the old drunken amoral past, "the home owner" to pass on so life could revive the town, God would revive the town.

The "atheist" ie the lawyer had to go, the whore "the cheating wife" had to go, "the drunkard" the homeowner had to go.

A great symbol do this is the suicide of "the whore". The picture of the dead bones of The Leviathan from the previous scene is replaced with the majestical sight of a breaching live Leviathan. Symbolic of the decaying starting to come back to life.

[–] antoni109 10 years ago

Interesting interpretation. But wrong IMO.

To me it showed the New Russia - the evil collaboration between Church, State and Business - is good for the rich but the poor still get trampled on. Consider that the mayor is always doing deals - they benefit himself, the church, and the rich. And the priest advises him to "do God's work" but not showing weakness - ie kill your enemies. He's always driving his workers on - scenes on the phone- "just get it done, if you can't do it I'll get someone who can". The beautiful new church will sit there on the hill but the town won't revive.

Remember also the last scenes of the film show the decaying boats - which is how the film started - followed by the shots of the mountains, snow, ocean, the 44 gallon drum floating. There is no god - and humanity and all our suffering don't matter.

The leviathan dead and alive is interesting - leviathan being the dark monolithic state. I'm not sure of the significance of the contrast of the skeleton the boy sits near and the live whale Illya sees before she kills herself... but to her the leviathan is the hell she lives in and can't escape.

[–] CoastalCruiser 9 years ago

I must agree with this take. It is bolstered by the fact that, unfortunately, the entire world is in that state... the state of corruption, Animal Farm style.

In America we have the home office of Goldman Sachs, a banking entity attempting to do the same as the mayor and Company worldwide- who actually came out at some point and claimed they were doing God's work.

The ultimate rationalization for bad behavior.

[–] kemaltarikyolcu 9 years ago

very good and in my opinion absolutely accurate interpretation

[–] reynold926 10 years ago

I'm inclined to believe that she committed suicide and THEN the mayor seized the opportunity to frame the husband for murder.

[–] CoastalCruiser 9 years ago

Hmm. I just popped in here because I'm watching the film for the first time, and they just discovered the wife's body. That's when I decided I really didn't know what was going on. This, after getting a bit dumbfounded earlier as to what happened at the birthday party.

So I had spotted this post when first perusing the IMDB plot summary (cause I knew I was going to need a little help with this one), so now decided to scan the thread before I get irretrievably lost.

And it's a good thread. But, respectfully, it doesn't shed any light on the wife's death. None of the explanations take into account that her cell phone service had been disconnected. It's not like the phone was ON and she just wasn't answering. And it's not like the phone was OFF and going right to voicemail (if Russian phones do that).

No, the service was disconnected. Someone did that. Who? Why?

The only plausible -albeit partial- explanation is that the wife turned the service off, as her expression of ♫ "there must be fifty ways to leave your lover" ♫. From there though, who knows? I thought I trusted the director of the movie until we got to this [what appears to me to be a] plot hole. And the director claiming it was suicide.... hmm..

In any case thanx for the post. Lots of other great points of view. It's funny, if this had been an American film it would have unfolded SO differently. We would have had to have ultimate revenge against the mayor. The attorney would have sent his daughter into hiding, and they would have the gotten some of their old war buddies together, and marched downtown to kick a little mayoral / Leviathan ass. Of course I haven't finished the movie yet.

I love foreign films.

[–] MasturbationProcess 9 years ago

I wouldn't call it "film explained", because what you wrote is basically simplified retelling of the plot, but not it's context, symbolism. I can't agree with your takes narrative, because they don't look like movie interpretations, just statements on what you plainly saw.