Abstract:

This study aims to analyze the film Elena (2011) by Andrey Petrovich Zvyagintsev, a very important place among the young-generation directors of the recent period of Russian Cinema, by focusing on the impact of social change on the concept of morality and conscience. In the study, the method of sociological analysis and the social changes in the period the film dealt with, the characters who are the symbolic representations of this change and their stories. First of all, in the breaks of the social change mirror, which reflects the obligatory relationships in which all the characters in the film, including Elena, the concepts of conscience and morality appear to be challenged in a stunning way. From Platon to Aristotle, from Spinoza to Kant, one of the most remarkable discussions of moral philosophy, which was discussed in various contexts by many philosophers, was shaped by Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche’s opinions, which showed a very different perspective with the approach that emphasizes the relationship of the morality with the power desire, were discussed in a critical context, and the question of the person who is expected to be the moral essence, in a rapidly changing social structure, was sought to be answered through the film on the basis of what his conscience would be based on. The argument of the study is that this question will only be answered by the analysis of the relevant social structure and power relationships. Thus, as a problem that manifests itself in the individual is not a sufficient measure to discuss morality, the most accurate axis in which interpersonal relations will be discussed in the moral context is the social structure and power relations themselves. With his previous film Vozvrashchenie (Return) and Izgnanie (Excursion), Zvyagintsev’s film, who has managed to look at human-focused stories from a social framework, is believed to have a universal character in terms of opening to the debate in the moral context the social change that is experienced by the influence of globalization not only in Russia, but all over the world on individuals and social relations.