Director Andrey Zvyagintsev made his auspicious debut with The Return. Since then, he's made The Banishment (which, thanks to the Los Angeles Film Critics Association's Films That Got Away committee, of which I'm a member, will finally be getting its L.A. premiere next month at the Los Angeles Film Festival), and now his third film is about to be released. It's called Elena, and I think it's his best film yet. For IFC Fix, I do my best to explain why.
