Leviathan’s best quality is its realism. But its plot is not exactly realistic. It’s quite the opposite. The film is about those unspoken forces in life—fear, desire, power, greed, love—that motivate us to make decisions. It is often impossible to describe why we choose or what we have chosen. It is a fait accompli, meaning simply there. Reason can give its explanations later. Leviathan grounds this cerebral problem in a story of passions in a rugged domain: the Murmansk Oblast of northeastern Russia.

Leviathan’s characters are by the book. The movie hosts an ensemble cast led by Kolya Sergeyev (Aleksei Serebryakov). Kolya owns a house. He repairs cars. He drinks vodka. Nothing to note, especially in Murmansk. But when the corrupt mayor of Kolya’s rural-ish town seizes Kolya’s home, the plot unwinds. For Kolya, losing his land means losing his family, his history, and his identity. The importance of land and home in Leviathan reminded me of Gone with the Wind. In an iconic moment, Gerald O’Hara says to his daughter Scarlett: “Why, land is the only thing in the world worth workin’ for, worth fightin’ for, worth dyin’ for, because it’s the only thing that lasts.” Like Scarlett, Kolya fights against leviathan forces for his land.

Leviathan’s title could claim two origins. The first, quoted in the movie by an orthodox priest, is from the Bible. In Chapter 40 of the Book of Job, Job, who has suffered the loss of his wealth and his children, demands an explanation from God. God replies by invoking the images of the Behemoth and the Leviathan, creatures of immense power. He asks Job: “Canst thou draw out Leviathan with an hook?” Only God has the power to create the Leviathan, so Job should not doubt that power. What He says, goes.

But more relevant to the plot is Thomas Hobbes’ book Leviathan. Hobbes borrowed from these verses in Job, but he personified the leviathan as the modern state. This Leviathan is absolute. As long as you are a citizen of a state, you are bound to its sovereign’s will. Here; we see the relevant to Kolya’s world. His leviathan is the Russian state. Their sovereign will is to repossess his home. Even when his long-time friend Dmitry (Vladimir Vdovichenkov) visits from Moscow to use the powers of influence and law to rectify his fate, the state responds with violence. Kolya is left powerless.

Dmitry, a lawyer from Moscow, repeats throughout the movie: “I believe in facts.” Facts uncover the tarnished past of the corrupt mayor Vadim (Roman Madyanov). Facts establish legal principles. Dmitry believes that his manipulation of facts and relationships can place him above all others. His stylish dress, his good looks, his infidelity to Kolya—all imply that he wants to be the God of his own world. In all his efforts, however, he is met with the sheer reality of violence. The state captures him and leaves him destitute as he tries to win Kolya’s house back.  Kolya’s wife and son are also drawn into the maelstrom that Kolya’s conflict with the state unleashes. His attempt to use the power of law through Dmitry ultimately destroys and dissolves his own family. His wife Lilya (Elena Lyadova) typifies stupefaction in face of reality—something that Leviathan wants to capture. Lilya makes choices without knowing why; and she is powerless to react to their consequences.

Everywhere, the rule of naked power is cloaked as the rule of law. The film is a look into a world that most Americans cannot imagine In an interview with Variety, Leviathan’s producer Alexander Rodnyansky said the following: “[Leviathan] deals with some of the most important social issues of contemporary Russia while never becoming an artist’s sermon or a public statement.”

The film ends with an apparent victory for the two Leviathans of Leviathan: the aggressive, noisy state and the quiet yet influential Orthodox Church. Kolya has been taken to prison. Dmitry has abandoned their friendship and fled to Moscow. Kolya’s son is effectively orphaned and taken in by his father’s friends. At church, the mayor stands next to a high church official, whom we learn to be the recipient of Kolya’s seized property. The morning sermon extols the renaissance of the Russian people and their renewed rise to power. The church father criticizes those values that lead men away from God, and he recalled those very verses from the Book of Job. God holds all truth and all power. We must follow his word lest we perish.

With this note of resignation, Leviathan ends. The corrupt mayor has won, because he holds power. The family who takes in Kolya’s son does express love for him, but his fate is ultimately tragic. Perhaps this is Russia in the 21st century: full of power and full of hopelessness. The beauty of the film’s setting can give a degree of hope; but as always, it is silent. Power is all that is palpable, but it is blatantly vacuous and shallow. It lacks the personality that characterized Kolya and Dmitry’s fraternity, and the love of kin shown to Kolya’s son. The conclusion of this movie serves its larger purpose: As Job says, “Naked I came out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return: the Lord has given, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” What will be will be.