On the outskirts of a small coastal town in the Barents Sea, where whales sometimes come to its bay, lives an ordinary family: Kolya (Aleksey Serebryakov), his wife Lilya (Elena Lyadova) and their teenage son Romka. The family is haunted by a local corrupted mayor (Roman Madyanov), who is trying to take away the land, a house and a small auto repair shop from Kolya. To save their homes Kolya calls his old Army friend in Moscow (Vladimir Vdovichenkov), who has now become an authoritative attorney. Together they decide to fight back and collect dirt on the mayor.
In a Russian coastal town, Kolya is forced to fight the corrupt mayor when he is told that his house will be demolished. He recruits a lawyer friend to help, but the man’s arrival brings further misfortune for Kolya and his family.
Leviathan (Russian: Левиафан) is a 2014 Russian drama film directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev, co-written by Zvyagintsev and Oleg Negin, and starring Aleksei Serebryakov, Elena Lyadova, and Vladimir Vdovichenkov. According to Zvyagintsev, the story of Marvin Heemeyer in the United States inspired him and it was adapted into a Russian setting, but critics compare the story to the more similar biblical story of Naboth’s Vineyard, where a King vies for his subjects’ land and is motivated by his Queen to obtain it in a sly manner. The character development of the protagonist parallels another biblical figure, Job. The producer Alexander Rodnyansky has said: “It deals with some of the most important social issues of contemporary Russia while never becoming an artist’s sermon or a public statement; it is a story of love and tragedy experienced by ordinary people”. Critics noted the film as being formidable,dealing with quirks of fate, power and money.
The film was selected to compete for the Palme d’Or in the main competition section at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival.Zvyagintsev and Negin won the award for Best Screenplay.It won the Best Foreign Language Film award at the 72nd Golden Globe Awards.It was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film for 2014 which was won by the film Ida from Poland.