NEW YORK, NY.- The Museum of Modern Art presents a mid-career showcase of the films of Andrey Zvyagintsev, whose unsettling dramas explore moral dilemmas and spiritual torment, January 12–24, 2018, in The Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters. The retrospective opens with a special screening of Loveless (2017) that also marks the final night of MoMA’s award-season series The Contenders and includes a post-screening conversation with Zvyagintsev. This gut-wrenching tale about a disintegrating marriage and a missing child won the Cannes 2017 Jury Prize, and will be Russia’s submission for the Best Foreign Film at the 2018 Academy Awards. Sony Pictures Classics will release the film in theaters February 16, 2018. Loveless: The World of Andrey Zvyagintsev is organized by La Frances Hui, Associate Curator, Department of Film, The Museum of Modern Art.
The award-winning filmmaker’s work pulls Russia from the headlines, reflecting the manifold stories of the region while delving into universal themes: human nature, broken families, morality, and government corruption. The series includes a weeklong run of The Banishment (2007), in its first U.S. theatrical release, featuring a Cannes Best Actor Award–winning performance from Konstantin Lavronenko as a man whose world unravels when his wife makes an unexpected announcement. Zvyagintsev’s other features also closely examine the subject of family, and all the love, secrets, violence, and betrayals that entails. These include his debut feature The Return (2003), about a mystery-filled reunion between two teenagers and their father, and his widely hailed 2014 film Leviathan, a complex political allegory about an auto mechanic battling the oppression of the state and church while confronting personal crises brewing at home. While uncovering the rawest human desires, motivations, and fears, Zvyagintsev allows the audience to sympathize, condemn, despair, or perhaps hope for a better world.
Frequently working with a core team of collaborators—including producer Alexander Rodnyansky, cowriter Oleg Negin, cinematographer Mikhail Krichman, editor Anna Mass, and production designer Andrey Ponkratov—Zvyagintsev creates unsettling, noir-ish tales and richly constructed tableaux. He is a rigorous formalist, an engrossing storyteller, and a biting social critic.
Zvyagintsev will be present for post-screening discussions after Loveless, on January 12, and Leviathan on January 14.
