Film "Island": reviews, plot, director, actors, prizes and awards

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

The film "The Island" (2006) has become a kind of hallmark of Orthodox cinema. This tape appealed to both believers and non-believers. Indeed, judging by the numerous reviews, the film "The Island" gave each of the viewers invaluable life lessons through the actions and behavior of its main character, the elder Anatoly.

There are quite a lot of Orthodox films currently being made. However, not all plots unfolding in monasteries and temples are of interest even to believers, not to mention a wide audience of spectators. However, judging by the numerous reviews, the film "The Island" deserves the closest attention. Not without reason, full cinema halls gathered to watch it.

Director

The painting "The Island" was shot by Pavel Lungin. He is included in the list of the most famous directors in Russia, whose work is well known to many foreign film critics. Moreover, despite the fact that the plot of the film "The Island" tells us about the events that unfold in an Orthodox monastery, the experiences of the elder Anatoly, the main character of the film, are quite understandable to people of any faith.

Pavel Lungin adheres to postmodernist views in most of his works. However, here the director of the film "The Island" presented to the audience a tape, the creation of which is fundamentally at odds with everything that he had done before. In this work, Pavel Lungin decided to reflect on how a person can come to faith. However, the director of the film "The Island" speaks of Orthodoxy not at all as a preacher. He does not take on the role of illustrator of certain gospel stories. Lungin presents the viewer with his hero, who comprehends wisdom not due to erudition or worldly experience, but as a result of direct heavenly revelation.

According to the director, his film "The Island" (2006) is about God and sin, crime and shame. But besides that, it is also an attempt to tell people that being human is excruciatingly painful. And yet, how important it is to be! Lungin believes that his tape in certain aspects is a kind of continuation of the film "Repentance", shot by Tengiz Abduladze, as well as the film "Regicide" by Karen Shakhnazarov. However, his work is more chamber and to a greater extent is addressed not to society as a whole, but to an individual.

Awards

To create the film "The Island" Pavel Lungin took the script of Dmitry Sobolev. The work of this graduate of the VGIK workshop attracted the director not only for its unusualness, but also for its depth and spirituality. The tape that was released on the screens was a great success and became a participant in many film festivals.

Among the prizes and awards of the film "The Island" are the following:

1. Victory at the Moscow Premiere 2006 festival.
2. Winner of the film award "Golden Eagle 2006". The best feature film in 2006. The tape also received awards for the best male supporting role (she was played in the film "The Island" by Viktor Sukhorukov), for the best male role (this award was awarded to Pyotr Mamontov), for the best director, as well as for the screenplay and camera work.
3. 2006 Oscar nominee
4. The highest-grossing film of the Molodist-2006 festival.
5. The official film that opened the Kinotavr-2006 festival.
6. The film that closed the Venice Film Festival in 2006
7. The film that opened the Pokrov-2006 festival.

The film was shown on TV screens by the Rossiya channel in 2007 before Orthodox Christmas. She received a film and six Nika awards. They marked the work of Pavel Lungin as the best film of the year. The film was also awarded for Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Director, Cameraman and Sound Engineer.

The genre of the film "The Island", which fits in 112 minutes of screen time, is a drama.

Cast

In their reviews, the audience notes the excellent play of the actors of the film "The Island". The main role in this film went to Peter Mamonov. He played the elder Anatoly. This hero in his youth is Timofey Tribuntsev. Also took part in the filming of the film "The Island" Dmitry Dyuzhev and Viktor Sukhorukov. These actors played the monk Job and Father Filaretrespectively.

The role of Admiral Tikhon Petrovich went to Yuri Kuznetsov. In his youth, he was played by Alexei Zelensky. The director invited Victoria Isakova to play the role of Admiral Nastya's daughter.

The film also took part:

• Nina Usatova is a widow who came to the elder.
• Olga Demidova - she played the role of a woman with a child.
• Grisha Stepunov - boy Vanya.
• Sergey Burunov - he played an adjutant in the film.

What is the movie about?

Judging by the reviews, the film "The Island" tells the viewer an unusual and amazing story. The film takes us to an uninhabited island, which is located in the North of Russia. Here, among the cold waves of the White Sea, stands a small monastery. For more than thirty years, the elder Father Anatoly has been living in it, serving God.

The Lord gave this man a special gift. Father Anatoly has insight. He is well aware of what the future holds for those people who turn to him. In addition, the prayers of a monk allow you to heal a person from diseases. That is why people come to the elder Anatoly for salvation from different parts of the vast country. The monk helps every person. However, he does it in an unusual way. In order not to become proud, the monk does not say that he is the elder to whom everyone is sent. He pretends to be his cell attendant. After listening to the request, he never tells the person everything directly, but leaves as if in order to confer with the elder.

In the film "The Island" the viewer canto see those miracles that come from Father Anatoly. For example, he dissuades a girl who came to a monk to take a blessing for an abortion, pointing out that this would become the sin of infanticide. He gave hope to a grieving widow by telling her that her husband did not die in the war at all. He was captured and is in France. He prays for the he alth of the boy Vanya, who came to him on crutches. And a miracle happens. The boy begins to walk on his own. The demon-possessed girl, the daughter of the admiral, he managed to save from a serious spiritual illness.

The film "The Island" reveals in detail the characters of the two monks living in this monastery. One of them is Father Job. This monk is very jealous of Anatoly and his ability to help people. Father Job is trying his best. However, the Lord does not accept his prayer.

Father Anatoly very carefully exposes Job in envy and malice. He doesn't say it to his face. Anatoly only asks Job why Cain committed the sin and killed Abel.

Another hero of the film "The Island" is Father Filaret. This abbot of the monastery is a very meek and very bright monk. His heart is filled with gratitude and love. However, this monk has one sin. He has an attachment to two things. The first one is comfortable leather boots, and the second one is a soft blanket that was bought during a trip to Greece.

One day there was a fire in the monastery. The fire partially destroyed the abbot's cell. That is why he had to move to the elder Anatoly for some time. He decided to save Father Filaret from two"demons" tormenting him. Anatoly throws his boots into the furnace, and the blanket into the depths of the sea. After such an outburst, Father Filaret sincerely thanks the elder for relieving his soul.

Backstory

Sin lies on the soul of the elder Anatoly. In those moments when no one sees him, he, crying, asks for repentance from God. What is his sin?

The viewer learns about this at the very beginning of the film "The Island". The plot begins with a story about how in 1942, during the Great Patriotic War, a German ship, located in the northern waters of the USSR, captured a Soviet barge that was transporting coal. Her team consisted of two people. This is the stoker and skipper Tikhon. Both of them tried to hide from the Germans by burrowing into coal. The first enemies discovered the stoker. The Nazis demanded to extradite their captain. After the beatings, the stoker pointed to the place where Tikhon was hiding. The prisoners were placed at the side in order to be shot. The stoker at the same time began to sob and ask the Germans to save his life. Tikhon, on the other hand, tried to keep calm and even began to smoke. Then the German officer offered the stoker to shoot his comrade in exchange for his life, giving him a pistol, which contained one cartridge. The stoker went into hysterics. Nevertheless, he fired at Tikhon, after which he fell overboard. The Germans did not kill the stoker. But they left him on the ship, which they had previously mined. Soon the barge exploded. Some time later, the monks picked up the almost lifeless body of the stoker on the shore.

After this, the plot takes us to 1976. We see an already aged stoker who became a monk and began to bear the name Anatoly. The main obedience for him is work as a stoker. In the monastery, he lives in a boiler room. Here he sleeps right on the coals.

An unexpected meeting

Carrying the burden of sin in his soul, the monk lived with it for more than thirty years. And despite his repentance and humility, the crime committed during the war haunts the old man. He often goes on a boat to a secluded island, where he prays and repents before God of his sin.

One day a prominent admiral came to the monastery. He brought his mentally ill daughter to the famous old man (she was wonderfully played in the film "The Island" by Victoria Isakova). Father Anatoly takes the girl to the island. Here, praying, he casts out a demon from her. In the girl’s father, Anatoly recognized the same Tikhon whom he shot in 1942. From the conversation it became clear that the fireman only wounded his captain in the arm, which allowed him to escape. At the same time, Tikhon explained that he had forgiven his friend a long time ago.

After that, Anatoly decided that he could die peacefully. The elder asked Father Job to bring a simple coffin. He complied with the request, but did not understand why. Father Anatoly jokingly scolded Job for the luxurious "buffet". He, in an attempt to make amends for his guilt, began to rub the coffin with coal. Meanwhile, Father Anatoly lay down in it. While in the coffin, he asked Job to go to the rest of the monks and inform them of the elder's death. Father Job ran to the bell tower andstarted ringing the bells. The film ends with shots in which the coffin with the body of Anatoly is taken by boat to the island where he went to pray.

Filming location

Where the film will be made was not decided immediately. The film crew had to visit the Pskov lakes, Kizhi, Lake Onega, Ladoga and the Murmansk region. However, the director did not like any of the monasteries that they saw in those places. After all, Lungin was looking for a small, half-abandoned monastery. Modern monasteries were huge cities surrounded by very high walls. Nature was found only during the fifth expedition. It was the coast of the White Sea, the outskirts of the small village of Rabocheostrovsk in Karelia. The director liked everything here. This is both a landscape and natural scenery. There was a sea with islands scattered in its waters. On land, there were half-abandoned houses and a far from new navigation tower. The island in the film is the peninsula. It was separated from the mainland only by a small isthmus. The tower was turned into a bell tower. The barrack, which did not even have a roof, became a church. Domes had to be built on this structure, its outer walls were patched up a little, and the inner ones were “sawed” to form a single space.

The director tied the whole scenery of the monastery to a flooded wooden barge. Most likely, this ship has remained since the time when prisoners were brought here in the twenties of the last century.

Filming

In his interviews, Pavel Lungin said thatthe performer of the role of Father Anatoly in the film "The Island" Peter Mamonov for the most part played himself. Even before starting work in this picture, the actor received the blessing of his spiritual mentor. Monk Kosma from the Donskoy Monastery came to these places for consultations with the film crew. On the first day of work, he held a prayer service.

The shooting took place for a short time, because it was necessary to complete them before the moment when the White Sea was covered with ice. The film crew was near Rabocheostrovsk from the beginning of October until the first days of December 2005. And only some scenes were filmed near Dubna on the Volga. They were filmed only at night, so that the viewer would not understand that this is not a sea, but a river. Another scene in which Tikhon and his daughter Nastya are on a train is Moscow, Rizhsky railway station.

Spiritual lessons from the film

Father Anatoly is a collective character. Some of his actions were borrowed from the lives of famous Optina elders. The director showed a great man in his film. But why does he engage in constant self-flagellation, pangs of conscience and suffering?

Judging by the reviews of the film "The Island", the audience in the father of Anatolia does not at all see a weak, weak-willed personality. He only fully realizes that by shooting at a person, he committed a great sin. And not all people are capable of this. There was no way he should have done that. But, having committed a sin, he remained forever guilty before the Higher powers, which are God and his own conscience. This is what prevents Father Anatoly fromrest. His incredible suffering and experiences can be compared with the torments of Raskolnikov. Only faith in God saves him from complete despair. It was she who replaced for this person knowledge and position in society, life comfort and material we alth. He sleeps in a coal-fired stoker and eats simple food. All that is in his life and keeps him in it is faith. And the court of the Lord and his own conscience does not give him rest.

Judging by the feedback from the audience, this movie is able to change the mind. The uniqueness of the film lies in its hero, capable of redemption and repentance. This image is undergoing significant evolution. From a weak person, a monk turns into a person with an unshakable spirit, capable of healing and saving the suffering. And at the same time Father Anatoly saves himself.

Conclusion

The film "Island" gives the viewer invaluable spiritual lessons. He points out that God is all-merciful, that he is ready to forgive people even their gravest sins. For this, a person only needs to sincerely, with all his heart, repent. That is why each of us should strive for spirituality and morality, realizing their value and importance.