ELENA ***

"Elena" is another slow, sombre drama from Russia, (I'm sure they must make comedies but they are few and far between). This one hails from director Andrey Zygagintsev and it's beautifully filmed with a superb central performance from Nadezhda Markina in the title role. The picture of modern Russia it paints is, of course, typically grim. Shit happens everywhere and the poverty depicted here is universal. But Elena is not poor; Elena has married an affluent man and lives in a modern house. Elena wants for nothing, except perhaps a life she might call her own. It is her son and his family who are poor and who live in a run-down high-rise apartment block and it's her son who needs money.

An American or a British film might have turned this into a kind of slam-dunk thriller but not Zygagintsev who opts instead for a very slow burner without dissipating any of the tension. It's when shit finally does happen to Elena and her family that the film ups its ante and does become a fairly riveting thriller. Nevertheless, it still moves at a measured pace and it's the small details that are telling, (Elena asking at a church to which saint she should light a candle). It's also darkly unsentimental; one might even call it cold. There isn't much in the way of emotion on display here and you get a chilly feeling from it. None of the characters, including Elena herself, are sympathetically drawn but it's a film that never quite conforms to our expectations and for that alone we should be grateful.