A battle of wills between a fanatically Orthodox teen, Venya, and his atheistic biology teacher, Elena, threatens to careen over into violence in Kirill Serebrennikov’s savage satire on the state of Russia today. It is no secret –  nor a coincidence – that Putin’s time in power has seen a concomitant increase in the power of the Orthodox Church. What starts out as a bit of a joke – Venya wearing a gorilla suit and protesting against Elena’s teaching of evolutionary theory rather than creationism – becomes more ominous as the teen embraces an extremist reading of the tenets of his faith with regard to women’s roles, the inferiority of the Jews and the evils of homosexuality. But Elena is no pushover, meaning a showdown is inevitable. The only question is: how far will Venya go…?