Yes, this is slow-moving but it is such an accurate portrayal of post-Soviet life in today's Russia that you overlook the lack of a lot of action to focus on the characters and the milieu in which they live. We have it all here -- an oligarch, an indulged son due to an indulgent mother, the haves and the have-nots. Maybe I appreciated it more than the average viewer because I have lived in Eastern Europe and am familiar with post-Soviet Russian culture. While the oligarch lives in a beautiful flat and drives a luxury car to his trendy gym, the worker bees (or should I say non-worker bees) live in a prototypical dilapidated housing block and walk miles to the train. A ne'er do well adolescent takes out his sense of hopelessness on those below even him on the socio-economic ladder. Raskolnikov lives!!

After Zvyagintsev's first movie, "The Return", I desperately wanted to see more of his work. He made another movie that I couldn't find, and finally- "Elena". New Russia, few new rich, and not so new, many poor. The land of fake equality became a land of stunning disparity. And the same kind of ruthless, lacking conscience kind of person that thrived in communism, does ever so well in the pool of greed and self-absorption. It was always about money and power, anyway. Cruel world and cruel deeds. What would one do for those he or she loves, no matter how undeserving they are. Apparently everything, even kill. Human capacity for evil surpasses very few things, and the ability to justify evil tops everything else. Hence the world we live in. Very simple actually, but still beyond comprehension of billions.