The first two E's of S3 were long, as was the last one or two, I forget, of S2.
Brief context, for these sublime acting shots: Vasya has been released from prison and made president again after voting fraud was proven. ...I know. Whatever.
Oh. Yuriy has been released too and is back as Vas's right-hand man and minister without portfolio to the oligarchs.
The scene is a gathering, maybe the first since Vasya's release, I'm not sure, at the family home around the dinner table. The country has been divided up into like sixteen fiefdoms, each controlled by an oligarch. Representatives of the fiefdoms are meeting with Vasya tomorrow. They have been persuaded to come by Yuriy of course. Immediately prior to this scene, in the presidential building, Yuriy has tried to convince Vasya that the corrupt oligarchs, if they go along, can save Ukraine as a united, solvent country. So the ethical dilemma is writ largest: Is a corrupt government, for that is what it will be, justified by the end, a reunited, fiscally stabilized country.
Oh. And Vasya's dad is back being pro-Vasya.
Everyone around the dinner table, all Vas's old ministers, including Olya, and Vas's father want to fight the oligarchs, arrest them, etc. They just need Vasya's go-ahead. But Vasya is weary and fatigue makes cowards of us all. He doesn't want to talk about the summit with the fiefdom leaders on the morrow. “I hate to entangle you in this crap,” he says. Sergey pushes back: "What are you talking about? Aren't we a team?" Vasya replies, "But in the first place we are friends."
That was not brief context. These are the facial reactions around the table:
Mikhail, the Internal Security chief. I have cropped and lightened these screenshots. In Mikhail I below the eyes are the same, showing doubt, confusion, suspicion, as Olya's and Sergey's. But his eyes change in Mikhail II, bottom.
He squints, especially with his left eye. It is very subtle and lasts a millisecond. It's the cop's squint of careful study of a person, and perhaps the formation of anger. He is very distrustful of Vasya in the second shot.
That is all that this post was about, just the direction that Zelensky gave to the actors on how to "look" at this moment in this scene. It is all body language, they don't speak. It is superbly directed and superbly acted. That's all.