Set in a small town on the Barents Sea, Leviathan shows that there is no escape, not even in the Arctic, from the Moscow-centric state and its hypocritical doppelganger, the Orthodox Church. The giant skeleton of a whale – possibly Leviathan itself – is beached on the shoreline, along with the carcasses of old boats, beneath a severe gray sky that frames a human landscape of political abuse, adultery, lawlessness, and the cynicism of all-powerful priests.