Loveless

There’s a piercing moment at the beginning of Loveless, the fifth feature from Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev, where the end of a marriage quickly unravels in a darkened apartment. As Boris and Zhenya (Aleksey Rozin and Maryana Spivak) bicker over the future of their 12-year-old son Alyosha (Matvey Novikov), a turn of the camera reveals the boy eavesdropping just out of sight – sobbing silently as he discovers that he’s a ​“mistake” no one wants to be saddled with.

Alyosha is about to fall between the cracks of two diverging lives – just not in the way his parents expect. While the pair are away spending time with their new lovers, their son disappears. It takes a concerned call from his school before they even notice. What follows is not a story where despicable characters find redemption in the face of tragedy. Instead Zvyagintsev offers a brutal indictment of society at large.

The search for Alyosha unfolds across a series of dark, inhospitable locations and through people entirely lacking in empathy. Loveless is set in 2012 – against a backdrop of political turmoil and apocalyptic portent – but its sombre, metallic hues make this feel like a foreboding vision of the future: one where the only thing beneath a surface of consumerism and corruption is self-interest.

In less capable hands, this could all feel clumsy or sneeringly cynical. The pacing, cinematography and performances, however, coalesce into something magnetic. There may not be a single likeable character but Zvyagintsev pans out just enough to conjure a sense of inherited malaise. (Zhenya’s own mother, a bitter recluse, tells her that she was a mistake too.) As the story skips forward in time, history begins to repeat itself – another unwanted child, another empty relationship – masterfully rounding out a parable of disconnection in a hyper-connected world.