Nelyubov aka Loveless by Andrey Zvyagintsev

Nelyubov aka Loveless by Andrey Zvyagintsev

Nelyubov has won the Jury Prize at the 2017 Cannes Festival, the most prestigious cinema competition in my view.

It is also nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film.

And it is an extraordinary achievement.

Loveless is about Alyosha, a twelve year boy suffering the drama of his parents separation and continuous fighting.

Boris and Zhenya have had more than enough of each other and the only thing left is a mutual hatred and a Loveless child.

In fact, Zhenya’s version is that she has never loved Boris and she had been trapped in a marriage she did not want.

-          Know thyself comes to mind

-          If any or both of the parents had taken time to think about themselves and their relationship…

Zhenya is a very attractive, beautiful woman, who is now in love with Anton and does not care much about her son.

She feels it was her mother and Boris who had pushed her to have the baby and then get trapped into a situation she loathes.

Boris is also involved with someone else, a young pregnant woman called Masha, who fears she may suffer the same fate as Zhenya.

To add to the already complicated status, Boris works for a sort of Orthodox fundamentalist, who applies a sort of Christian sharia.

If the CEO finds about the troubles and the inevitable divorce, the man would lose his job and the income that offers security.

In a discussion with a colleague, the solution seems to be to hire a woman with two children to play the “fake family”.

A question came to mind while watching this excellent film:

-          Why are these parents so absent?

-          Are they so self-absorbed, preoccupied with their own failed marital relationship?

-          Is this the society we live in, with selfies and constant checking of the phones, social networks that alienates people?

-          Studies do show that those who take time off from Facebook are feeling better

-          It has been established that this is the medium in which many, if not show off their trips, achievements, even food, while others are left to envy and grumble about their failure to compare

-          And do not compare yourself with others is one of the key rules of Happiness!!

The fact is that Alyosha is missing.

One morning, after returning late the previous night, which was spent with her new partner, Zhenya gets a message from school.

She is not even able to tell if her child has been at home the night before and almost anything else about his past twenty four hours.

The call to her husband is yet another opportunity to exchange vicious words and expletives, which have been strangely censored in the version of the film that I saw.

When the police arrive, the officer in charge is not very enthusiastic and talks about the fact that the boy would return.

The mother is unhappy with the fact that no official investigation is initiated and nothing is about to be done.

-          Look “devushka”, I have been nice…another in my place could have been less helpful and meaner!

-          And I am sure he is right!! Given the fact that Russia is not really a democracy

He also talks about the lack of resources, the many robberies, crimes and other runaways they have to deal with.

But he has a strange suggestion, that the parents contact a group of people who are volunteers and find missing children.

They are stupendously well organized, with SUVs, dozens of men and women, communication gear and military-like rigor.

The parents travel to Zhenya’s mother, an occasion for more offences, aggresivity and vicious exchanges.

The grandmother proves to be not the pleasant babushka I am used with from other films, but a repressed, vile woman.

In all this, the Nelyubov Alyosha is the victim and we do not know if they will find him and what will happen to Boris and Zhenya.

Mesmerizing motion picture