MovieChat Forums > Leviafan (2015) Discussion > religious parallels?

religious parallels?

posted 9 years ago by inbolivia
5 replies | jump to latest

*!SPOILERS!*

Can someone help me decipher the religious parallels that the director was trying to imply?

there is an obvious message that the bishop and the church is an hypocritical state, and even though it appears to be preaching religiosity and truth, it really is indirectly legitimazing corruption and providing a false sense of clear concious to the politician (and/or the state).

however, there apparently is more to the story than just this blatant criticism.

the trivia section says it is supposed to be based on the book of job. but i fail to see how the life of kolya or the movie in general parallels the story of job apart from the blatant references to Job, whales, and the skeleton. am i missing something here?

again, there are the two curches, the one of the politician and the abandoned one in the village. i think this somehow insinuates that the villagers have abandoned the church, while the corrupt politicians still adhere to it. or it could be the opposite, that the church has abandoned the regular folk for the sake of siding with corrupt politicians. but again, this is not very clear.

also, there is the lawyer, who dodges answering about his baptism or belief in God, and claims he only believes in facts. i feel like this is interconnected to all other religious elements throughout the movie, but i couldn't tell what to make of it. possibly, he represents rational thinking and justice for civilians which was ultimately suppressed by the corrupt politicans (who were partially spurred on by the church's support). but this also does not seem to be a clear conclusion, since dima slept with lilya's and contributed to the destruction of kolya's life.

finally, there is obviously kolya's encounter with the priest outside the market and the mention of 'evolution' by the guy solving the crossword (which, iirc, raises negative sentiment from kolya).

one possible understanding that comes to my mind as i write this up is the possiblity that kolya represents the regular russian citizen whose life is being affected on three fronts; state, church, and a call to rationality. and possibly, all three lead to further turmoil in his life. anyways, this is also not a very strong conclusion, and i'm curious what you guys made of it? to me it seems to be more complex than a simple statement of "religio is evil and it supports the corrupt state."

[–] 9 years ago

[deleted]

[–] maasoumy 9 years ago

I will answer part of your questions.

There are two churches. The old, semi-ruined church is now visited by the teenagers to drink, smoke and have fun. And the new church is visited by the politicians and adults mostly to hear the pastor's sermons on truth and morality. Both however have an identical interior dome pattern. Is that mere coincidence? Of course not. The former predicts the final destiny of the new one.

Leviathan is the biggest animal, as the local priest says to Kolya. But even the biggest animal cannot be immune to death and decay. While one is still seen living in the ocean as Lilya ponders suicide, the skeleton of a dead one has been washed ashore and shown a couple of times throughout the movie.

The movie starts with iconic images of old ships who are shattered by the waves. It also ends with similar images of the same ships. Why? What does the movie want to imply? It is saying that death and decay is the ultimate fate of the world. The new church will one day turn into a ruined one, the bold religious images will become forsaken portraits and the fate washes away all the living animals- even the biggest one, Leviathan. What remains is the inanimate world. Thus the waves, the rocks and the river at the last sequences.

[–] rmax304823 9 years ago

That's at least as good as any other interpretation, especially the observations in the last paragraph. Thanks.

[–] darthsparhawk 8 years ago

In my opinion, it is a twisted version of the original story. The priest got the mayor to ruin the life of Kolya in order to build a luxury Church for himself. He is on the role of the Devil, who uses his influence on the mayor. The people in this little town live in Hell, which we see from the desolate pictures of ruins.

[–] morganakastevesmith 8 years ago

I was going to mention the pictures (hanging on the wall). It appeared in the old pictures that the town used to be an active and somewhat productive place, with boats working in the harbor (my assumption is that the picture was taken during the Soviet period). And this picture is repeatedly contrasted in scenes with how the town looks now, a desolate place with sunken ships in the water.

I'm wondering what the metaphor was in this regard? Was the metaphor supposed to be that the church ultimately destroyed the town, it's people, and then eventually even itself over time? Or perhaps that corruption destroys all, including those who call themselves "rational" as well as people of the church?

I'm trying to figure out the relationship and metaphors, because I know there has to be some sort of tie between the church and the "relatively new" Russian state. The inclusion of pictures of the former Soviet leaders during the camping was no coincidence (and there was also a statue of Lenin later in the movie).

Perhaps the new corrupt church symbolizes the new Russian state, which has destroyed both the "atheist," "rational," more "productive" past of the Soviet period as well as the moral principles held by the old church. So whether you are an atheist like Dima the lawyer or an "old" believer like Kolya, the present corrupt system has destroyed any ethics that should exist now.