When a sudden illness and an unexpected reunion threaten dutiful housewife Elena's potential inheritance, she must hatch a desperate plan ...

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Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
...
Elena
...
Vladimir
...
Katerina
...
Sergey
Evgeniya Konushkina ...
Tatyana
Igor Ogurtsov ...
Sasha
Vasiliy Michkov ...
Lawyer (as Vasily Michkov)
Aleksey Maslodudov
Ekaterina Tarkovskaya
Ivan Mulin
Nikita Slepchenkov
Yury Borisov
Igor Yurtaev
Yaroslav Zhalnin
Vasily Prokopyev
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Storyline

Elena and Vladimir are an older couple, they come from different backgrounds. Vladimir is a wealthy and cold man, Elena comes from a modest milieu and is a docile wife. They have met late in life and each one has children from previous marriages. Elena's son is unemployed, unable to support his own family and he is constantly asking Elena for money. Vladimir's daughter is a careless young woman who has a distant relationship with her father. A heart attack puts Vladimir in hospital, where he realizes that his remaining time is limited. A brief but somehow tender reunion with his daughter leads him to make an important decision: she will be the only heiress of his wealth. Back home he announces it to Elena. Her hopes to financially help her son suddenly vanish. The shy and submissive housewife then comes up with a plan to give her son and grandchildren a real chance in life. Written by Cannes Film Festival

Plot Summary | Add Synopsis

Taglines:

Thy Will Be Done.

Genres:

Drama

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Details

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Release Date:

20 September 2012 (Israel)  »

Also Known As:

Yelena  »

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Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$9,035 (USA) (18 May 2012)

Gross:

$23,278 (USA) (13 June 2014)
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Company Credits

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2.35 : 1
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Did You Know?

Trivia

It all started when British producer Oliver Dungey proposed a project with four films made by four different directors, all touching upon the topic of apocalypse. For about a month, director Andrey Zvyagintsev and screenwriter Oleg Negin looked for a plot and found "two or three curious concepts," but then Negin phoned Zvyagintsev one night and suggested they should meet. At the meeting, he told Zvyagintsev almost the complete plot of the future film. The story is based on an incident from Negin's life. See more »

Quotes

[first lines]
Elena: Get up...
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Connections

Referenced in Pozner: Andrey Zvyagintsev (2011) See more »

Soundtracks

Violins Only
Performed by Andrey Dergachev
Arranged and recorded by Andrey Dergachev
© DERGACHEV, 2010
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User Reviews

 
contemporary bleakness
16 January 2017 | by (Portland, Oregon, USA) – See all my reviews

Andrey Zvyagintsev's "Elena" is a not a pretty picture of modern Russia. One can see a stark contrast between the life of affluent life that the protagonist and her husband lead and the miserable life that her son leads. The gang that beats up a homeless man adds to the dismal factor. It's no accident that Elena does what she does towards the end.

Many of the shots last a couple of minutes each, creating a sense of realism. By all accounts, most of the characters see no future. Like Zvyagintsev's previous movie "The Return", it's a focus on a grim, unforgiving world (his more recent "Leviathan" focused on the same sort of topic but also incorporated corruption in the story). The residences alone show the difference: Elena and Vladimir live in a swanky loft, while her son lives in a crumbling apartment building (one of those Khrushchev-era edifices that had design problems from the start).

I recommend the movie. Along with the main plot, it poses the question: can Russia ever see a future?


0 of 0 people found this review helpful.  Was this review helpful to you?

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