Andrey ZvyagintsevCast
Aleksei Serebryakov 
Elena Lyadova Vladimir Vdovichenkov
Credits
Written by: 
Oleg Negin
Plot
Kolya, a man in a northern Russian coastal town, fights the corrupt mayor who wants to seize his land and house. He calls on an old army friend, a lawyer from Moscow, but his marriage and friendships break under the pressure of the struggle. Andrey Zvyagintsev's 2014 film, a bleak parable of power and the Church, won the Best Screenplay prize at Cannes.
Sinekatalog’s take
Andrey Zvyagintsev's Russian tragedy pits a man against a corrupt mayor in a harsh seaside town. Bleak, powerful and politically sharp, it is also visually stunning, with the whale skeleton as a haunting image.Sinekatalog’s own editorial review – not a user or critic quote.
Ratings
IMDb: 7.6 / 10 (60,741 votes)
IMDb rating and vote count from the IMDb ratings dataset (October 2026). Scores change over time.
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