MINOTAUR**** - BFI London Film Festival 2026 - Day 10

Andrey Zvyagintsev (LEVIATHAN) returns to our screens with another profound and scabrous of the holistic corruption of Russia under Vladimir Putin. Every level of life, from federal to local government, corporate, personal has been twisted and tainted until nothing remains but hollow, performative, nihilism. God is dead, what Putin wants is permitted. 

As the film opens, Russia has just invaded Ukraine and working age men are fleeing the country.  Dmitriy Mazurov plays Gleb, a wealthy and successful businessman in an anonymous Russian town.  The local Mayor asks him to name the workers he is willing to send to fight in Ukraine. Is Gleb a good guy or not? He won't send his men (good?) so randomly employs a bunch of other men so he can send them off instead (bad?).  Meanwhile, Gleb suspects that his wife Galina (Iris Lebedeva) is having an affair.  She can barely look at him let alone touch him. 

The first hour of the film is achingly slow, deliberately slow, and I didn't forgive the film for that, even when I realised that it was laying the foundations for an explosion of action and a second two-thirds that would try and work through the consequences of that act. It plays like a personal morality tale and a mirror to the wider corruption in Russian society. The final scene, that sees a resolution and accommodation of sorts, is chilling.  It speaks to complicity and enablement and acceptance. 

Overall, this is a handsomely made and beautifully acted film. I know why the first hour needed to be slow, but I still didn't like it. Other than that, this is essential viewing.

MINOTAUR has a running time of 2hrs 15m and is rated 15. It played Cannes, Toronto and Telluride. It goes on release in the USA on November 20th and in the UK on November 27th.

LEVIATHAN

You can listen to a podcast review of this film here:



Cinema is rich in films that tell the story of simple men who dash themselves against the rocks of misfortune:  of impotence in the face of corrupt authority and arbitrary fate.  Good men are not rewarded:  justice is not done.  In general, I find such tales uncomfortable viewing.  In fact, I find them sadistic.  You take a good man and watch him suffer for two hours with the director casting himself as the uncaring and inscrutable God of the Book of Job.  So why is it that while I found the Coen Brothers' A SERIOUS MAN and INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS unappealing I was bowled over by LEVIATHAN?  I suspect it's because there is no knowing, snide humour in LEVIATHAN, although it is sometimes funny in a low-key way.  Consequently, rather than being outside of the movie laughing at its central character's misfortune, we are inside the movie, sympathising with him. Or maybe it's because the subject matter is so much more urgent when situated within contemporary Russia, a totalitarian kleptocracy worthy of the movie's title.   At any rate, I am not alone.  LEVIATHAN has garnered critical acclaim and awards wherever it has been shown.  And in a brazen act of co-option is the official nomination of Russia for the Academy Awards.  It's featured in many a critic's Best of 2014 list and you'll be hearing more about it as awards season gathers pace.  All of this is justified.