Elena

★★★★

(2012)

Andrey Zvyagintsev's third feature constructs an intimate and subtle study of a woman from a poor background who has remarried a highly successful retired business man. Each of them are strangely detached and disinterested in the others children from previous marriages; Our Elena (Nadezhda Markina) has a quiet hatred for Vladimir's (Andrey Smirnov) spoiled daughter Katerina (Elena Lyadova) and in turn he is stubborn and moralistic when it comes to helping out Elena's lay about son, Sergey (Aleksey Rozin). It's a film full of discussion about finance and responsibility, but more than that it's a film of quiet depression and shock.

Feeling much smaller in many ways than either of Zvyagintsev's previous award winning efforts, Elena instead slowly chips away at a very quiet character study with only a handful of roles and less locations. Markina is a powerful presence as Elena who takes every little job she has to do as if she was still a nurse in the care of many people's lives. She's both meticulous and caring as she is forced to take care of a now sick and weak Vladimir and as Elena reaches into its second half her desperation for her own family becomes the films most shocking moment.

As a forerunner in Russian film, the young director has honed his skill and his restraint and at times Elena feels close to the work of Michael Haneke. It has a slow precise tension which passes without jolts or showy bravado but it's these silent places where a film makes it mark long after and Elena certainly does that. As a mystery it provokes with its neglect of any real back story, but tantalises softly and simply with one long tracking shot into a photo of Elena in a picture frame on the wall of their house. Will we never really know who she it?

It's wonderfully shot, Zvyagintsev' interiors are naturally lit by whatever low bright sun is passing by and, although the bulk of the film takes place in the spacious house of Elena and Vladimir, the exteriors are handled with as much skill; Most noteworthy is a mysterious long shot moment involving the heaviest part of Elena's burden and worry, her grandson, and his friends which perfectly turns the film's quiet finale into something much more menacing.