Ostrov

(Update: I forgot to mention that this film is clean – no real violence, no swearing, no immodesty, in fact, I can remember nothing offensive.)

MrPages and I enjoy good films. By films, I do not mean movies.

Movies are what Hollywood churns out to placate the masses and brainwash them into buying kitsch. (Okay, we do watch a few of these too…)

Films, on the other hand, are created by artists to examine life and its worth. Films are hard to come by here in North America. That’s why, over the years, we have developed a taste for films made elsewhere. You do have to be careful about foreign film as some of it can offend North American sensibilities, but in general we have found it to be charming, challenging, and worth the effort of reading subtitles. (I detest overdubbed films. There is richness is listening to the speakers’ native languages, even if I can’t understand them.)

Ostrov is a truly great film, in all senses of the word “great”.

Ostrov (The Island) is a Russian film about a man who commits a murder during World War II and then spends the rest of his life in a Russian Orthodox monastery trying to accept Christ’s forgiveness. Here are a group of men sincerely desiring to know and serve their God, and live and learn from one another. The results are miraculous (literally) and they provided much food for thought.

The cinematography is stunning, the characters are mesmerizing, and the symbolism is rich and deep.

If you can find some place to rent it or if you’re willing to take the plunge and buy it, I can not recommend it strongly enough. Our own copy should arrive soon. Maybe we can loan it to you.

***
I’ve re-read and edited what I wrote, but somehow it’s not enough. I want to talk about this film, but doing so would spoil it. I want to discuss the validity of Father Anatoly’s faith walk, the way he challenges the believers around him, the fact that this Russian Orthodox monk who sits on his pile of coals is closer to his God than all those around him. I want to understand his suffering, his humility, his insight and his obedience. I want to mull over how this man’s life is closer to what I think religious people should want to be than any other character in any other film I have ever seen (except, perhaps, Babette’s Feast – another great film worthy of it’s own post)

But, just in case you might, on a long shot, get the opportunity to see this one – I’ll hold my tongue.

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