Elena Lyadova

In the family scenes of Leviathan (2014), Elena Lyadova gives us reasons to think about someone other than the angry man at their centre. Aleksei Serebryakov’s Nikolay Sergeev can be exhausting company; her Liliya Sergeeva has unhappiness of her own, and the performance makes us attend to it. We were moved by these scenes because Lyadova made Liliya matter separately from our sympathy for Nikolay. She helps keep the scenes from becoming a succession of reasons to take his side.

Her film debut was Dreaming of Space (2005), but the decisive collaboration began with Zvyagintsev’s Elena (2011), in which she played Katerina. Leviathan then brought that partnership to wider attention. These roles helped establish her as an actor for troubled, conflicted women, often working within an ensemble rather than apart from it. What interests us is her willingness to leave those women difficult: she does not appear to need our approval before she can make us care.

We would not make a virtue of restraint in every part. Leviathan needs Serebryakov’s abrasive anger, and it would be a poorer film if everyone adopted Lyadova’s quieter approach. Equally, its heavy religious symbolism is a weakness that good acting cannot wish away. The reason to value her contribution is specific: when the family are together, Nikolay’s troubles do not cancel out Liliya’s.

Away from Zvyagintsev, she plays Nadya in The Geographer Drank His Globe Away (2013) and a young editor in Dovlatov (2018). Television work includes Irina in McMafia (2018). These are reasons to look beyond the two films that established her reputation. The subdued performance in Dovlatov also suggests a limitation: understatement can make her too easy to overlook. Start with Leviathan, and do not expect the family to make the evening comfortable.