Russian film industry laments Leviathan's Oscar loss

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/feb/24/russian-film-industry-leviathan-oscars

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After losing to Polish director Pawel Pawlikowski and his monochrome Ida, Russian film industry figures are lamenting that their country’s much-fancied entrant Leviathan couldn’t add to its Golden Globe win.

“The best foreign-language film category is known in the U.S as a ‘senior citizens’ award,” festival organiser Kirill Razlogov told the Hollywood Reporter. “[Older voters] are more likely to empathize with films associated with the analysis of the past and that are stylistically pure, rather than the violent passions of Leviathan.”

Andrey Plakhov, critic for the newspaper Kommersant, said: “The best films were pushed to the periphery – and not only Leviathan and Timbuktu, but also Boyhood.”

Related: Leviathan director Andrei Zvyagintsev: ‘Living in Russia is like being in a minefield’

Sam Klebanov, head of distributors Arthouse.ru, wrote that the loss was “a great shame” but seemed almost relieved that any further political heat around the film was dampened. “The ‘haters’ will be gloating today, but had we won, the idea that the film was ‘made for the Yanks’ would be even more firmly entrenched.” Mikhail Shvydkoi, the Russian president’s special envoy for culture, had a similar view: “At least there will be no speculation like ‘the Americans are bad, they hate Russians, so they awarded a film that is critical of Russian life’,” he said.

They allude to the resistance to the film from Russia’s cultural elite. Criticising the film’s depiction of Job-like struggle amid the cruelty of local bureaucracy, culture minister Vladimir Medinsky said the film’s characters “are not Russians” and that the film’s director Andrei Zvyagintsev only made it for “fame, red carpets and statuettes.” Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov did eventually come out in support of the film as the Oscar ceremony approached.

One sales agent that the Hollywood Reporter spoke to said: “No Russian Oscar committee member who voted for the film dared defend it and explain their decision. It shows that the intelligentsia is just as afraid as officials are.”