Loveless (Russian: Нелюбовь, pronounced "Nelyubov ") is a 2017 Russian film directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev.
The story is about two separated parents living apart in the suburbs of Moscow, Zhenya (played by Maryana Spivak) and Boris (played by Aleksey Rozin). Their affection is long forgotten and their relationship has become loveless. They are temporarily brought together after their only son, 12 year old Alyosha (played by Matvey Novikov), disappears.
The film was shot in Moscow, with international support after the Russian government disapproved of Zvyagintsev's 2014 film Leviathan. It won the Jury Prize at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for the 90th Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
Has nothing to do with the manga Loveless.
Provides examples of:
- Abandoned Area: The abandoned Soviet era building in the forest, which Alyosha and his friend used as a "base". The search concentrates there after said friend speaks about it.
- Abusive Parents: While not physically abusive, Zhenya frequently mistreats and belittles Alyosha while Boris is mostly just neglectful and apathetic. No wonder the kid ran off.
- An Aesop: The lack of love destroys families and even lives.
- Art Imitates Art: Some shots are similar to paintings by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Including The Hunters in the Snow.
- Awful Wedded Life: Big time. Zhenya and Boris seemingly married out of Honorable Marriage Proposal after Boris made Zhenya pregnant, and things went downhill from there.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Masha. Initially coming across as much warmer and sincere than the frigid Zhenya, one key scene reveals that she couldn't possibly care less about Alyosha when she tries to get Boris to stop by for sex while he's in the middle of a search.
- Book Ends: The movie starts with Alyosha leaving school and going into the forest. He stops by a riverside and throws a barricade tape in the branches of a tree. The film ends on a shot of the same tree two years later, with the barricade tape still on it.
- The Coroner: Zhenya and Boris go to the morgue as there is an unidentified dead child there, and a coroner unveils the corpse to them. Zhenya is horrified at the sight of the mutilated corpse and starts crying, but states it is not Alyosha.
- Distant Finale: The film's end happens about two years after Alyosha has gone missing.
- Divorce Assets Conflict: Zhenya and Boris are conflicted about who owns the apartment. Boris seemingly considers it's fully his while Zhenya wants to split the money from the sale in two.
- Downer Ending: Alyosha has not been found after two years, Zhenya and Boris have divorced and Boris doesn't care much about the new child he had with Masha. And the war in Donbas makes the news.
- Evil Old Folks: Zhenya's mother is very abusive during the visit of her daughter and son-in-law.
- Exiled to the Couch: Boris has to use the couch whenever he has to sleep at the apartment.
- The Fundamentalist: Boris' unseen boss is a Russian Orthodox fundamentalist who sports a beard, only employs baptized Orthodox people, takes his employees on pilgrimages instead of more "fun" holidays and fires them as soon as he learns that they're divorced. That last part makes Boris quite nervous, as he's precisely in the middle of a divorce.
- Zhenya's mother is also one, to some extent.
- It's All About Me: Pretty much every single character in the film except Anton and Ivan suffer from this.
- Left Hanging: It is unclear whether the boy shown to the parents in the morgue is Alyosha or not.
- Mandatory Motherhood: Zhenya wanted to abort, but Boris convinced her to keep Alyosha. She makes it clear that she has never loved him.
- Meaningful Name: Zhenya and Boris have a surname Sleptsov which is derived from the Russian word slepoy or "blind". This would be overdoing it, however the surname is only rarely mentioned in the film and on most sites Zhenya and Boris have only names.
- Missing Child: Alyosha can't stand the Parental Neglect anymore and decides to run away, and doesn't come back.
- The New '10s: The Mayan Doomsday craze and Barack Obama are mentioned on the radio, thus situating the biggest part of the film in 2012. At the end of the film, the war in Donbass
is mentioned on TV, situating said end in April 2014 at the very least. Additionally, many adults (especially Zhenya) are addicted to Facebook on their smartphones. - No Antagonist: There is no antagonist to speak of, the film is just about two very irresponsible and self-serving parents who don't love each other and neglected their child.
- Obnoxious In-Laws: The mother of Zhenya is obnoxious and hates both her and Boris.
- Parental Neglect: Neither Zhenya nor Boris really love Alyosha and they don't care much about him beyond the basic material/school needs he has. He comes to resent it big time to the point of running away, and by the end of the film, it's implied Boris doesn't care about his new child either.
- Police Are Useless: Invoked but zigzagged. The police officer makes it clear to Zhenya that the police can't help her and Boris much in the search for Alyosha since they're undermanned, but still leads them to a missing people search group with plenty of volunteers to help.
- Red Herring: The film frequently hangs shots on seemingly innocuous background characters, as if they were somehow responsible for Alyosha's kidnapping. None of them are.
- Riddle for the Ages: What happened to Alyosha?
- The Runaway: A security camera video confirms Alyosha ran away.
- Second Love: Both Zhenya and Boris have found a new love by the time the film begins.
- Silver Fox: Anton, Zhenya's new love. He's nearing 50, good-looking, has greying hair and takes good care of himself.
- Uncertain Doom: Alyosha. Was he kidnapped while running away? Was he murdered? Did he commit suicide in a remote part of the forest? Did he die by accident? Did he change his identity altogether while never contacting anyone from his previous life anymore?
