{ "id": "epzxkv338v", "slug": "elena-2011-film", "title": "Elena (Эле́на) (2011 film)", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "label": "Drama and biographical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2010-to-2014", "label": "Drama films 2010 to 2014", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2010-to-2014" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2010-to-2014.psychological-and-social-drama-films", "label": "Psychological and social drama films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2010-to-2014.psychological-and-social-drama-films" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.eeu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Eastern Europe · 2001 to 2020: Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.eeu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films", "path": [ { "id": "geo.eeu", "label": "Eastern Europe", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.eeu" }, { "id": "geo.eeu.t2001", "label": "Eastern Europe · 2001 to 2020", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.eeu.t2001" }, { "id": "geo.eeu.t2001.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.eeu.t2001.culture" }, { "id": "geo.eeu.t2001.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.eeu.t2001.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.eeu.t2001.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.eeu.t2001.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.eeu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.eeu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Elena (Эле́на) is Andrey Zvyagintsev's 2011 Russian drama, his third feature, in which former nurse Elena (Nadezhda Markina) murders her wealthy husband Vladimir (Andrey Smirnov) to secure her son's inheritance; it won the Cannes Un Certain Regard Special Jury Prize.", "snippet": "Elena (Эле́на) is Andrey Zvyagintsev's 2011 Russian drama, his third feature, in which former nurse Elena (Nadezhda Markina) murders her wealthy husband Vladimir (Andrey Smirnov) to secure her son's inheritance; it won the Cannes Un Certain Regard Special Jury Prize.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2010-to-2014.psychological-and-social-drama-films", "markdown": "# Elena (Эле́на) (2011 film)\n\n*Elena* (Эле́на) is a 2011 Russian drama film directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev, his third feature, in which a former nurse married to a wealthy Moscow businessman murders him after learning that his new will will cut her son's family out of his inheritance. It premiered as the closing film of the Un Certain Regard section at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Special Jury Prize.[1](https://www.deepfocusreview.com/reviews/elena/) • [2](https://fipresci.org/report/elena-crime-and-reward/)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Director / writers | Andrey Zvyagintsev; screenplay by Oleg Negin and Zvyagintsev, his first co-screenwriting credit[1](https://www.deepfocusreview.com/reviews/elena/) |\n| Premiere and prize | Closing film of Un Certain Regard, Cannes 2011; Special Jury Prize[1](https://www.deepfocusreview.com/reviews/elena/) • [3](https://kinolorber.com/film/elena) |\n| Lead cast | Nadezhda Markina (Elena), Andrey Smirnov (Vladimir), Aleksey Rozin (Sergey), Elena Lyadova (Katya)[4](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt1925421/credits/) |\n| Key crew | Cinematographer Mikhail Krichman; composer Philip Glass; producers Alexander Rodnyansky and Sergey Melkumov[4](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt1925421/credits/) |\n| Release and length | 109 minutes; earliest release September 30, 2011 (Russia/CIS)[4](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt1925421/credits/) |\n| Box office | $2,227,905 worldwide, of which $233,380 (10.5%) domestic (United States)[4](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt1925421/credits/) |\n| Critical scores | Metacritic metascore 87 (\"universal acclaim\"); Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer 94% from 65 reviews[5](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/elena/critic-reviews/) • [6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/elena_2012) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot\n\nElena (Nadezhda Markina), a woman in her fifties and a former medical nurse, lives with her wealthy older husband Vladimir (Andrey Smirnov) in a palatial Moscow apartment. She had nursed him as his nurse before their marriage, and her role in the household resembles that of a servant: she cleans, cooks, wakes him, and sleeps in a separate room.[7](https://eefb.org/perspectives/andrey-zvyagintsevs-elena-2011/) Both have children from previous marriages. Elena's unemployed son Sergey (Aleksey Rozin) lives with his pregnant wife and children in a run-down Soviet-era apartment block on the outskirts and depends on handouts from his mother; Vladimir's daughter Katya (Elena Lyadova) is an idle, well-off young woman from whom he has long been estranged.[7](https://eefb.org/perspectives/andrey-zvyagintsevs-elena-2011/) • [8](https://shc.stanford.edu/arcade/interventions/russias-two-souls-andrei-zvyagintsevs-film-elena-2011)\n\nThe crisis turns on money for Elena's grandson. Sergey needs a lump sum to place his teenage son in a university and thereby shield him from military conscription, for which every Russian eighteen-year-old is eligible; Vladimir refuses to pay for the education of someone he regards as a stranger.[8](https://shc.stanford.edu/arcade/interventions/russias-two-souls-andrei-zvyagintsevs-film-elena-2011) • [1](https://www.deepfocusreview.com/reviews/elena/) After Vladimir suffers a near-fatal heart attack while swimming, he intends to make a new will with his attorney leaving almost everything to Katya, with Elena receiving only an annuity, but dies before formalizing it.[7](https://www.eefb.org/perspectives/andrey-zvyagintsevs-elena-2011/) Facing the loss of the inheritance her family counts on, Elena kills him by putting Viagra in his food after his heart attack, and passes his money to her son's family.[7](https://eefb.org/perspectives/andrey-zvyagintsevs-elena-2011/) • [1](https://www.deepfocusreview.com/reviews/elena/) • [13](https://www.screendaily.com/elena/5027922.article)\n\nThe ending closes the circle. Elena's family moves into Vladimir's spacious apartment and begins subdividing it, in a manner the Stanford essayist compares to the conversion of grand pre-revolutionary apartments into Soviet communal warrens; the final shot through the window repeats the opening shot.[8](https://shc.stanford.edu/arcade/interventions/russias-two-souls-andrei-zvyagintsevs-film-elena-2011) Katya arrives too late to contest what has happened.[7](https://eefb.org/perspectives/andrey-zvyagintsevs-elena-2011/)\n\n## Production and style\n\nZvyagintsev shot the film in a deliberately restrained visual register: a muted, gray-blue palette, mostly stationary camera with split-focus compositions, long takes, and long stretches without dialogue.[8](https://shc.stanford.edu/arcade/interventions/russias-two-souls-andrei-zvyagintsevs-film-elena-2011) • [1](https://www.deepfocusreview.com/reviews/elena/) [Philip Glass](https://www.edgepedia.org/philip-glass)'s minimalist score enters after an opening scene played in near silence, punctuated by morning noises and television sound.[8](https://shc.stanford.edu/arcade/interventions/russias-two-souls-andrei-zvyagintsevs-film-elena-2011) One late scene, a fight, was shot with a handheld camera, a formal contrast that reviewers singled out as unusually effective within the film's otherwise fixed framing.[1](https://www.deepfocusreview.com/reviews/elena/)\n\n**Sets rather than locations.** Both principal apartments were sound stages built for the production. Vladimir's apartment was covered from several angles, while Sergey's flat, a replica of real Soviet-era apartments from the 1970s and 1980s, was shot almost entirely from a single angle to underline its claustrophobia; the neighboring buildings outside Vladimir's windows were panels covered with photographs of a typical Moscow courtyard.[1](https://www.deepfocusreview.com/reviews/elena/)\n\nThe film marked several firsts for its director. It was his first film with a female main character, after *The Return* (2003) and *The Banishment* (2007) had centered on men, and his first co-screenwriting credit; he also insisted on retaining a church scene that co-writer Oleg Negin had wanted to cut.[1](https://www.deepfocusreview.com/reviews/elena/) Before shooting began, the [Sundance Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/sundance-film-festival) named the screenplay's development the best of 2010.[9](https://start.ru/watch/elena)\n\n## Themes and interpretation\n\n**Class divide.** The film shuttles between central Moscow, where money rules and the wealthy are contemptuous of the poor, and the city's outskirts, and critics read it as a study of class resentment in post-Soviet Russia.[10](https://godalmingfilmsoc.org.uk/film-archive/2020-21/elena/) The Stanford essay reads the couple as two of Russia's \"two souls,\" reviving [Maxim Gorky](https://www.edgepedia.org/maxim-gorky)'s 1915 essay of that name: Vladimir's world implies planning and cause-and-effect reasoning, while Elena's is a chaotic world in which needs, such as the draft threat to her grandson, must be met impulsively, by bribe or subsidy.[8](https://shc.stanford.edu/arcade/interventions/russias-two-souls-andrei-zvyagintsevs-film-elena-2011) The same essay traces the film's literary pedigree to [Denis Fonvizin](https://www.edgepedia.org/denis-fonvizin)'s comedy *The Minor*, Goncharov's *Oblomov*, and [Isaac Babel](https://www.edgepedia.org/isaac-babel)'s \"Tale About a Peasant Wench.\"[8](https://shc.stanford.edu/arcade/interventions/russias-two-souls-andrei-zvyagintsevs-film-elena-2011)\n\n**Crime and punishment.** In the tradition of a distinctly Russian idea of punishment, Elena is haunted by her deed: after the murder she encounters a dead horse, and a district-wide power failure echoes her inner state.[7](https://eefb.org/perspectives/andrey-zvyagintsevs-elena-2011/) The FIPRESCI critic noted that the film presents no hero and no clear villain, asking whether there is punishment for a crime and even what crime is, while leaving the answers to the viewer.[2](https://fipresci.org/report/elena-crime-and-reward/) The East European Film Bulletin reads the murder as Elena's one act on her own behalf, yet also doubts its emancipation: her family quickly claims the apartment and she falls back into the servant's position, so the deeper tragedy may be her solitude, accepted by neither her husband's class nor her own family.[7](https://eefb.org/perspectives/andrey-zvyagintsevs-elena-2011/) Zvyagintsev himself said in a later interview that social inequality was not the film's main theme for him.[11](https://spektr.press/rossijskoe-obschestvo-s-ogranichennoj-otvetstvennostyu-rezhisser-andrej-zvyagincev-o-nelyubvi-i-schaste/)\n\n## Reception and awards\n\nCritical response was strongly positive. Metacritic recorded a metascore of 87 from 16 reviews, all positive, with The New York Times, Salon, and the Los Angeles Times each scoring it 100; the Los Angeles Times praised the spare dialogue and the widescreen compositions that \"simmer with violence.\"[5](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/elena/critic-reviews/) Rotten Tomatoes lists a 94% Tomatometer from 65 reviews.[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/elena_2012) Several critics at Cannes lamented that the film screened in Un Certain Regard rather than competing for the [Palme d'Or](https://www.edgepedia.org/palme-dor).[1](https://www.deepfocusreview.com/reviews/elena/)\n\nBeyond the Cannes Special Jury Prize, the film won the Grand Prix for Best Film at the Ghent International Film Festival in 2011, and at the 2012 Nika Awards Zvyagintsev won Best Director and Markina Best Actress; Mikhail Krichman won the White Square for Best Cinematography from the Russian Guild of Cinematographers. IMDb records 24 wins and 23 nominations overall.[12](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1925421/awards/) Retrospective commentary has placed the film in Zvyagintsev's arc as a return to form after *The Banishment* and a step toward the more grounded, socially specific cinema of his later work such as *Leviathan*.[1](https://www.deepfocusreview.com/reviews/elena/)\n\n## References\n\n1. [Elena (2011) | Movie Review | Deep Focus Review](https://www.deepfocusreview.com/reviews/elena/)\n2. [\"Elena\": Crime and Reward, FIPRESCI](https://fipresci.org/report/elena-crime-and-reward/)\n3. [Elena | Kino Lorber Theatrical](https://kinolorber.com/film/elena)\n4. [Elena (2011) - Box Office Mojo](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt1925421/credits/)\n5. [Elena critic reviews - Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/elena/critic-reviews/)\n6. [Elena | Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/elena_2012)\n7. [Andrey Zvyagintsev's Elena (2011), East European Film Bulletin](https://eefb.org/perspectives/andrey-zvyagintsevs-elena-2011/)\n8. [Russia's Two Souls: Andrei Zvyagintsev's Film \"Elena\" (2011), Stanford Humanities Center](https://shc.stanford.edu/arcade/interventions/russias-two-souls-andrei-zvyagintsevs-film-elena-2011)\n9. [Елена смотреть онлайн, start.ru](https://start.ru/watch/elena)\n10. [Elena | Godalming Film Society](https://godalmingfilmsoc.org.uk/film-archive/2020-21/elena/)\n11. [«Российское общество с ограниченной ответственностью», Spektr](https://spektr.press/rossijskoe-obschestvo-s-ogranichennoj-otvetstvennostyu-rezhisser-andrej-zvyagincev-o-nelyubvi-i-schaste/)\n12. [Elena (2011) - Awards, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1925421/awards/)\n13. [Elena](https://www.screendaily.com/elena/5027922.article)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 2010 to 2014 › Psychological and social drama films*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/elena-2011-film", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/elena-2011-film.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Elena (Эле́на) (2011 film)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/elena-2011-film. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Elena (Эле́на) (2011 film)](https://www.edgepedia.org/elena-2011-film)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/elena-2011-film](https://www.edgepedia.org/elena-2011-film). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Elena (Эле́на) (2011 film)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/elena-2011-film. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Elena is Andrey Zvyagintsev's 2011 Russian drama, his third feature, in which former nurse Elena murders her wealthy husband Vladimir to secure her son's inheritance; it won the Cannes Un Certain Regard Special Jury Prize." }