Loveless. Director: Andrei Zvyagintsev, 2017.

Modern Russia, 2012: the streets in the newly developed Muscovite suburb are clean and tidy; the high-rise buildings contain flash apartments and the new winter snow gently lands on the local playground. This, we view through the dissociated gaze of twelve-year-old Alyosha who spends his after-school time alone in his bedroom. Trapped between the window of his bedroom and the window of his computer, his clear blue eyes vacantly wander with the desolate sadness of a lost soul. In the background, Alyosha's mother, Zhenya, is showing their apartment to potential buyers. It is from the confines of his bedroom that Alyosha bears witness to his parents' vicious fighting.

In this heart-wrenching drama, we hypnotically follow the catastrophic destiny of a loveless couple and consequently of their unwanted child. The film has a captivating intensity, such as of a thriller drama, and while we become immersed in the acrimoniousness and callousness of its surroundings, we can't stop but fear for the worse. The couple's failed marriage leads them to spend more time with their new partners while abandoning their only son, who will soon become the sacrificial lamb for their loathing of each other. One of the most devastating scenes is when Alyosha overhears his parents row about him. Neither parent wants to be left with him once they get divorced. Zhenya, the mother, vitriolically shouts at Boris, the father, and condemns him for his cowardice by planning to send Alyosha to an orphanage in case he loses his job. This is a problem for him as he works for a company that is run by an Orthodox Christian boss who disapproves of divorcees. It is distressing then to watch Alyosha hiding behind the bathroom door, his face in a silent scream crying, his mute sobbing devastating—a snapshot of a child who came to the world alone and who remains alone. Later, when Zhenya returns from her lover, she receives a call from the school informing her that Alyosha hasn't attended school for two days.