Elena (2011 film)
Elena Russian is a 2011 Russian drama film directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev. It premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival where it won the Special Jury Prize.
Elenas son from a previous marriage is poor and wants money from Vladimir to have one of his sons enrolled in a university, keeping him out of the compulsory military service. After Vladimir makes it clear that he is not going to subsidize Elenas relatives, she decides to poison him in order to inherit his fortune. Vladimir plans to leave the apartment to his only daughter from an earlier marriage.Jim Hoberman referred to Elena as the most vivid evocation... of Moscows contemporary society. According to Hoberman, Zvyagintsev has mapped out a world ruled by ingratitude and the absence of justice. Critic Stephen Holden of The New York Times was impressed by Zvyagintsevs vision of Moscow as a jungle teeming with predatory wildlife suggesting that in this quasifeudal social environment, avarice and blood ties trump all other values. The Village Voice acclaimed Zvyagintsevs scalpellike precision dissecting class that recalls Claude Chabrol. Shoot this film in black and white and cast Barbara Stanwyck as Elena, and youd have a 1940s classic, Roger Ebert observes. ........
Source: Wikipedia
