Loveless

Rated 3.0

Another quietly scathing picture of contemporary Russian society from Leviathan director Andrey Zvyagintsev, this time focusing on a divorcing couple as they deal with the disappearance of their son. Capitalist monsters Zhenya (Maryana Spivak) and Boris (Aleksey Rozin) have both taken other lovers, but they still live together with their neglected 12-year-old child Alyosha (Matvey Novikov) while they try to sell their apartment. After overhearing a particularly mean-spirited argument between his parents, Alyosha goes missing after school, although both Boris and Zhenya are too busy with their new lovers to notice his absence until the next day. When the police prove helpless, Boris and Zhenya are forced to team up to track their boy down, but their bitterness and resentment keep bubbling to the surface. Methodical, unsettling and icily beautiful, Loveless paints a devastating portrait of a soulless modern world, but Zvyagintsev over-relies on easy targets and teasing portent.