TODAY’S BEST BET: Whose Occupation Was It? Поп/The Priest (Drama. Russia, 2009)(Nashe nove kino, 20:15)) --> Director Vl. Khotinenko made one of the definitive perestroika-era thought-films -- Зеркало для героя/Mirror for a Hero (1987) -- and has done much of interest since then; but nothing of his has been more provocative, I’ll wager, than this WWII story of an Orthodox priest working on Russian soil under German occupation – you see the conflicts looming here already… ‘The Priest’ is less plot-driven than episodic – which is as it should be, since its premise is a plot unto itself: as part the Pskov Orthodox Mission, which re-introduced religious practices into parishes from Pskov to Leningrad during the German occupation of1941-44, a Russian Orthodox priest (Sergei Makovetsky) is sent from his Baltic parish to serve a Russian village. Just *whom* to serve there – God, man or Caesar – and how to do it are all the “plot” necessary. And the answers on offer are not all pat. The film has been called “highly tendentious”; “pure religious propaganda”; “Beautiful. Powerful. And cold”; “Delicate and sad”; and a good deal else. The current Patriarch liked it – which is hardly surprising, as it was the first commercial film made under patriarchate auspices. And while audiences have treated it fairly well (a 6.8/10 IMDb rating and 7.4 on KinoPoisk), the film’s box office life, one notes, flatlined shortly after release. Suffice it to say that new Russian viewers will get to ponder much that is unfamiliar in this based-on-a-true-story (but considerably modified) effort; and non-Russian audiences, even those unfamiliar with the contested history of the region, will in any case enjoy the strong performance by Makovetsky (described by one viewer as “more real a priest than some priests in churches”). The reliable N. Usatova as his wife is also in fine form – as steadfast as she can get w/o lapsing into stereotype. Briefly put, ‘The Priest’ rewards different audiences on different levels and will make many reassess just what “occupation” means.
Posted on: Mon, 30 Sep 2013 14:27:14 +0000
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