TIFF 17 Film Review - Loveless

12 year old Alyosha (Matvey Novikov) has a special tree that he likes to spend time at in the woods between the school and his home. Here there is no shouting or harsh words. Alyosha can play with a colourful piece of ribbon, stare at the water and marvel at the sky. Once he leaves and comes home he is faced with his reality. His apartment is up for sale, there are people trekking in every day to poke around in his room. On top of this his soon to be divorced mother Zhenya (Maryana Spivak) and father Boris (Alexey Rozin) already have new partner seemingly not able to speak a sentence to each other without degenerating into a fight. The fights are usually in front of their son welling him up with emotion that is mocked by his parents.

In the early going it appears that neither of the parents want the kid. Zhenya prefers to stare at her iPhone than look at her son. Boris already has another woman pregnant and faces real concerns at his office job as the boss expects all of his sales staff to be in happily married families. Then one night each parent is out with their partner overnight leaving no one at home to realize that Alyosha has gone missing.

Director Alexey Zvyagintsev tells the unblinking tale of two people who can't stand the sight of each other that are forced to team up to find their son. The key to the piece is Zvyaintsev's account of the volunteer search team that help build a background then go step by step through the procedure to investigate and search for a missing child. The phalanx of yellow clad searches marching grid style though a field has been done before but here we get investigation techniques, prime people to interview, interaction with the undermanned disinterested police department and the right questions to ask at hospitals.

Maryana Spivak and Alexey Rozin give equally strong performances as the parents. On a car trip to Zhenya's mother the viewer truly sees how much they despite each other as they try to provoke one another through, music, an open car window and smoking. Matvey Novikov role is limited at Alyosha but he has the most pivotal scene very early on in the proceedings establishing how much he is hurting and how oblivious his parents are of his pain.

Loveless is another suburb offering from Zvyaginstev following in the footsteps of his last feature Leviathan.  While that film was heavier on government corruption, here the officials are more apathetic. Parents desperate to escape from a dead relationship forced to work together make a fascinating dynamic. Neither parent is a sympathetic player with at times the citizen search group leaders appearing to be more interested in finding their child. Zvyaginstev has delivered another piece centered on the workings of modern Russian affairs that is keenly watchable and highly recommended.

**** Out of 4.

Loveless | Alexey Zvagintsev | Russia | 2017 | 127 Minutes.

Tags: Divorce, Christian Fundamentalist, Pregnancy, Runaway, Missing Child, Search and Rescue, Flyers, Surveillance Video, Secret Hideout, Grid Search, Hospital, Athlete, Treadmill.