Elena

Andrey Zvyagintsev (Leviathan, Loveless) relates a taut, caustic tale of need and greed leading to desperate deeds; a bleak and brilliant study of contemporary Russian mores.

Andrey Zvyagintsev (Leviathan, Loveless) creates a measured, increasingly suspenseful drama about a nurse, married to an ailing rich businessman but worried about her unemployed son and his family, yielding to terrible temptation. A corrosive study of need corrupted by greed, it is a stark, brilliant meditation on contemporary Russian mores, enhanced by terrific performances and Philip Glass's music.