My sin is forever before me - The Island a.k.a Ostrov
Staff Writer | Thursday October 31, 2013 13:29
What the three explore is 'no man is an Island', even if he selects to be one, or even against his will he is imprisoned on one. The power in all these stories lies in the individual characters and their expression of their situation. In The Island, Pavel Lungin has complicated his tale by making a saint, who is a sinner, also a trickster, or as the other monks call him, a prankster. On top of that, he is a clairvoyant, gifted with foresight or prescience, a healer and a miracle worker. He helps those who have been failed by Russia's modern doctors.
It is set in the far north of Russia in the White Sea, near a naval base that lies next to a few small islands linked by wooden walkways over shallow water. On this island, there is an old Russian Orthodox church and a monastery. The prologue at the start of the film is set in 1942. On a small ship, a seaman and his captain wait. The seaman tends the ship's furnaces in the boiler room. Then a Nazi naval vessel arrives, seeking the captain. The seaman, Anatoly (acted in 1942 by Timofei Tribuntzev), at first refuses to help, but when beaten and threatened reveals the captain's hiding place. The Germans then offer Anatoly his life if he will execute his captain, Tikhon Petrovich (played in 1942 by Aleksei Zelenski). Shot, he falls into the sea and vanishes. Their ship explodes. Anatoly is washed up on an island. He has survived. His captain has died, by his hand.
This is the source of Anatoly's essential guilt and lifelong penance. Now fast forward 34 years to 1976. A Russian Orthodox monk, Father Anatoly (played in old age by Pyotr Mamonov, a famous Russian rock musician), is an Urodivy (fool for Christ), and tolerated by the other monks; except for Brother Job (acted by Dmitriy Dyuzhev), who is affronted by Anatoly's behaviour and takes it as a personal affront. When people come to the island seeking to be helped by Anatoly, he will not admit that he is the one-and-same. He tends the furnace, as he did on years before in his ship before it exploded. He even sleeps on the coal piles near the boiler.He is rude and uncompromising to those who seek his help, but when he does turn around and assist, his actions are surprising and bewildering. To a young woman (Yana Esipovich) seeking blessings before an abortion, he says of religion, that she 'will get more sense if you listen to the radio'. Later he tells her that she will have a 'golden boy'. 'I killed a man too. Now get off my island'. Anatoly still prays for Tikhon's spirit. 'My sin is forever before me. Forsake me not ... help me oh Lord'.
There are at least seven other brothers and fathers on the island. Anatoly plays jokes on them that they find frustrating. When he heals a boy (Grigori Stepunov) so that he may walk without his crutches, he makes a demand that the boy's mother (Olga Demidova) cannot accept. He then says the boy will not be well, unless she heeds his request to stay on the island overnight.When she still refuses him, he goes after her and the boy, demanding they do not leave the island. She does not comprehend his intrusion, expecting that the healing requires no reciprocal actions. She fears if she stays, she will lose her job. He tells her a boiler has exploded where she works and all the staff are on three days leave. She cannot believe his vision. He asks the other brothers; 'Why did Cain kill Abel?' When Father Superior Filaret's (played by Viktor Sukhorukov) quarters catch fire, he takes shelter with Anatoly on his coal piles. Anatoly adds Filaret's boots to the furnace's flames and throws his duvet into the sea. 'I was attached to my boots and blanket ... you have freed me'. Anatoly's pranks reveal a method to his madness.
The most interesting case is that of Nastya (Viktoriya Isakova) who arrives on the remote island with her father, Admiral Tikhon Petrovich (acted now by Yuriy Kuznetsov) to seek healing from a form of mental illness that has possessed her for four and a half years since her husband died. To Anatoly she is not insane, not ill, merely possessed, but his way of exorcism is unusual. Eventually he pronounces, 'Now you are well'. He tells the Admiral what happened in 1942. 'My commander was the skipper of a big boat. I shot him'. Has Anatoly finally found the forgiveness he has been seeking for three decades? What is the relationship between faith and salvation? These questions make it a very Russian film.
The Island (2006) is one hour and 49 minutes long. It is rated PG+. The director is Pavel Lungin. The script is by Dmitri Sobolev. The marvellous writer and cinematographer is Andrei Zhegalov. The editor is Albina Antipenko. The original music is by Vladimir Martynov.