LOVELESS (NELYUBOV) World Cinema

Andrey Zvyagintsev returns with his latest feature, a gut-wrenching drama centered on Zhenya and Boris, a couple nearing the end of a nasty divorce. All that remains to be offloaded is the burden that stands between them and happiness: their young son, Alyosha. The day after Alyosha witnesses a vicious argument, he disappears, leaving his parents, the police and town searching for him. Zvyagintsev is a master of capturing the human condition, and in LOVELESS he examines two extremes: the selfish couple who wish to wipe the slate clean and start new lives with or without their son, and the selfless volunteer search committee who want nothing more than to find a vanished child, forcing the audience to examine their own ambivalence. – Jenn Murphy