I heard this film was about corruption in contemporary Russia and the crooked mayor was an allegory for the Putin government. The first half of the film fits this description, and I think I preferred this half, even though there was less conflict and sometimes it seemed that very little was happening.
However the second half of the film is essentially a bleak tale of human failure. At precisely the moment when the community needs to stick together to protect themselves, the family self-destructs. The behaviour of the wife beggars belief. She sleeps with the lawyer when her husband is jail, and then fools around at a picnic when she is likely to be caught. She clearly feels upset about it because she commits suicide later not much later. Another betrayal is committed by the friends of the family (the police officer and his wife) who are far too quick to believe the death was murder (and not suicide).
So I think it's fair to say this is a story primarily about human weakness and failure and only secondarily about corruption in Putin's Russia. I think in this time we urgently need stories about communities sticking together to fight corruption. We need far less stories about humans cracking under pressure and turning against each other. I think some people may even be depressed by this film and take away a "resistance is futile" message.
However the second half of the film is essentially a bleak tale of human failure. At precisely the moment when the community needs to stick together to protect themselves, the family self-destructs. The behaviour of the wife beggars belief. She sleeps with the lawyer when her husband is jail, and then fools around at a picnic when she is likely to be caught. She clearly feels upset about it because she commits suicide later not much later. Another betrayal is committed by the friends of the family (the police officer and his wife) who are far too quick to believe the death was murder (and not suicide).
So I think it's fair to say this is a story primarily about human weakness and failure and only secondarily about corruption in Putin's Russia. I think in this time we urgently need stories about communities sticking together to fight corruption. We need far less stories about humans cracking under pressure and turning against each other. I think some people may even be depressed by this film and take away a "resistance is futile" message.