Once Upon a Time... Loveless Série-Collection : Un film et son époque

Olivia Mokiejewski
2019 - 52 min - Video Full HD - Couleur et Noir & Blanc - France

"Loveless" is Russian filmmaker Andrei Zviagintsev’s fifth feature film.
Boris, a sales executive, and Zhenya, who runs a hair salon in Moscow, are going through a devastating divorce. Alyosha, their unwanted and neglected 12-year-old son, suffers in silent tears the consequences of their mutual loathing and violent spat. One day, the child goes missing on his way home from school and cannot be found despite the active search of a group of volunteers. A volunteer association conducts research where the police are unable to engage.
In this documentary, the 45th film of the collection "A film and its time" created by Marie Genin and Serge July, Olivia Mokiejewski will demonstrate how this film takes an unvarnished look at the Russian middle class of Vladimir Putin, showing Boris and Zhenya, a conformist, consumerist, and individualistic couple in the middle of a marriage breakdown.
Shot during the winter in the feature film’s actual sets, the documentary will reproduce the impersonal, almost dehumanized world of the massive Moscow suburbs, still bearing the scars of the Soviet era. Desperately dark, "Loveless" is also an indictment on the police and the state who abandon the missing people to their fate. The search for them is entirely supported by specialized associations like Liza Alert. Some of its members, who play their own role in "Loveless", will explain the civic importance of their mission.
The main protagonists of "Loveless" will be interviewed in Moscow; the couple of actors playing Boris and Zhenya, the producer, the director of photography and, of course, Andreï Zviagintsev himself, who was born in 1964 in Siberia, and is today at the forefront of new Russian cinema.
Andreï Zviagintsev moved on to the big screen and saw all his feature films receive awards in Europe (in Cannes as in Venice), but they faced a lot of challenges in Russia. His previous film, "Leviathan", which denunciated the widespread corruption fiercely, was virtually banned. Russia’s moral breakdown depicted in "Loveless" also received many attacks. By focusing on the problem of censorship, this documentary will show how the fight for artistic freedom still endures today.