Corruption as Shared Culpability: Religion, Family, and Society in Andrey Zvyagintsev's Leviathan (2014)

This article engages in close analysis of how Andrey Zvyagintsev depicts corruption and its various manifestations: moral, familial, societal, and institutional, in Leviathan (Leviafan, 2014). While other post-Soviet films address the problem of prevalent corruption in Russia, Zvyagintsev’s work is the first to provoke strong public reactions, not only from government and Russian Orthodox Church officials, but also from Orthodox and political activist groups. The film demonstrates that the instances of legal and moral failings in one aspect of existence are a sign of a much deeper and wider-ranging problem that affects all other spheres of human experience. By elevating corruption from a well-known and accepted mundane problem to a religio-philosophical one, Leviathan creates a sense of shared culpability that underpins contemporary Russian society.