Leviathan

First of all, i can understand why some folks don't like this movie. It is unconventional, experimental and honest. So not everybody's cup of tea. The first five minutes i was also in a mood of "nahh what is that?" but then i kept watching and let myself go. The scenes are very long so they kinda let you immerse into what is happening after a while. What you see is not nice. But somehow i got hooked. It was almost kinda like meditation. Beautiful and disturbing at the same time. Just images and sound that together form something whole after a while. After i watched it, i didn't knew if i liked it or not. But days later i am still thinking about it, so i decided to like it. It is sort of Art and Reality melted together. An audiovisual experience that drags you down in the world of the sea, the fisherman, the boat, humankind, the world we live in. And it does that without telling you anything you didn't know already, because it doesn't have to.

If you are up for a new experience that will make you think about it for a while, go see the movie!

This experimental-documentary film examines in a very concise manner the problematic of mass consumption featuring a fishing ship as an all- devouring sea monster - Leviathan. The viewer is immediately immersed in a dark vision of this demonic large steel beast which leaves behind the remains of sea creatures and coloring sea water in red, surrounded with the sounds of fluttering semi-living fish, chains, anchors, ocean and screams of seagulls. They all create this sinister sound like a choked howls from abyss. An impressive visual and sound voyage and innovative approach to the issue (mass consumption) characterize this exceptional work about insufficiently identified atrocities of contemporary civilization.

An interestingly filmed documentary that suggests a sensory experience rather than just capturing the conventionally "beautiful" images of the life in the sea. If you wish to watch a film that has a conventional narration do not watch this. The camera seeks to document fish, birds, nets, man, the sea etc with the same curiosity and the same intensity, everything being of the same importance. The camera moves a lot in this process and sometimes makes you feel dizzy but at the same time this way of documenting captures the essence of this world where everything moves and swirls constantly. Throughout the film there is an insistent mixing and blurring between the sea and the sky, up and down. The scenes showing the masses of fish tangled in the nets suggest a comment on man's voracity. Beautifully recorded sound. A bit bumpy but an interesting and genuine experience.

If you are expecting a neat little movie with a clear plot, that leaves you with a sense of having experienced something you can summarize easily ... you'll be sorely disappointed. This is a horror film in many senses, presented as poetry and intellectually obscure.

Its title, Leviathan, is a reference to the biblical passage that depicts man's encounter with a sea monster. Here, the monster is man, ripping life from the sea and destroying it in the harshest of ways, butchering sea creatures in such a matter-of-fact, emotionally detached way as to bring you to tears. But the way it is filmed creates a detachment of its own, sort of stifling the viewers' emotions so we can watch without turning away.

It is on its surface a commentary on the commercial fishing industry ... how we have reduced mass slaughter to an assembly-line process ... much like what the Nazis did to the Jews. When man turns against man, we are horrified. When man turns against nature ... it's just business as usual.

If there is a message to the film it's that we are the monsters on this planet.

If you want to see a masterpiece of visual and sound like no other, see the documentary film Leviathan. It is one of my favorite films (now) and like nothing I have ever seen, a true experience of nature and life in both the cruelest and most beautiful sense.

The director is able to convey amazing emotion and feeling though just the use of light and shape, let alone the whole piece taking the audience though an experience of life and nature. It's contrasting imagery of experimental visuals based on shape and color compared to ones of stark, bestial nature.

I barely have any words to try and explain how masterful this film is. Please do not avoid it because some of the poor reviews here, watch the film with an open mind and you will experience something that you never have before.