Northwest Film Forum

The border between viewer and subject is resoundingly breached in Leviathan, which follows a commercial fishing boat from whatever viewpoints it can, be they the hands of a fisherman or a helmet containing a tiny camera as it tumbles across the deck. Directorial super-duo Taylor and Paravel take the narrative of a nature documentary deep into uncharted waters, leaving us orphaned from the idea of a storyteller, even as the story itself—which roams through the daily lives of fishermen, ethical issues in the industry and ecosystems far out at sea—bears us forward helplessly in its net. The most groundbreaking work of cinema in decades, the documentary form will never be the same after Leviathan. 

"If “Moby-Dick” had somehow been conceived as a documentary, it might have resembled this spellbinding French/British/American film, which was shot on a trawler under dark, grim conditions in the North Atlantic. . .The mixture of arresting images and carefully chosen sounds is quite striking." —John Hartl, The Seattle Times

"Such details. . .make you feel, in your stomach, what it is to exist at the intersection of things like "the commercial fishing industry" and "global capitalism." And feel it you do." —Jen Kagan, The Stranger

"presents itself as a radical rethink of documentary form. . .gives you room to think about what you are seeing." —Brian Miller, Seattle Weekly

Leviathan (trailer) from Cinema Guild on Vimeo.