Andrey Zvyagintsev (Leviathan, Loveless) returns once again to cast his critical gaze on Russia in our bleak present times.
Set in a provincial Russian town during the onset of the 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and made outside Russia with support from France, Latvia and Germany, this noir-esque thriller centres around a middle-class businessman who suspects his wife of having an affair.
With his staff members disappearing to escape being drafted into the army, and pressure from local government to provide soldiers from his workforce, small-town executive Gleb is growing more concerned with matters at home. The film is based on Claude Chabrol’s The Unfaithful Wife from 1969, and shows how expert filmmaking can produce a quiet slow-build of dramatic tension.