Wednesday 4 March 2009

A Brilliant Film


This might be the best religious film I have seen. It is just brilliant. The title, "Octpob" means, "Island". It is about a Russian monk, and if you are thinking of getting it (and I advise you to consider it) it is better that I do not say too much about the plot - although if you read some of the reviews on Amazon you will get most of the story.
It is remarkable in that so much of the dialogue is prayer - and what is not actual prayer is pure spirituality and ministry. The film says more about community life than many other films I've seen (or books I've read!). If you like the sayings of the Desert Fathers, you will like this. If you like Russian literature, you will like this. Just make sure that you get the version with the English subtitles. They are essential.
A brilliant film for Lent. If you have given up the cinema or films for Lent, make an exception for this one. It has taken Russia by storm (and this says a lot about Russian people today). It was given five Russian "oscars" and outside Russia is regarded as one of the best foriegn films made in recent years. It is worth it for the photogrpahy alone. Just superb.

3 comments:

  1. Would like to get this, but couldn't find it either on Amazon UK or US. Could you put up a link? Thanks

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  2. Yes, it is not that easy to find, but this is the link to the English Language version (that is, with subtitles). it seems expensive but it is worth it. I bought it for the Parish, so that it could be available to others.

    You might need these instructions since all the writing is Russian. When you load it and the main menu comes up, the bullet is at the Russian for "play". Press that and another page comes up. This is where you choose the subtitles. You will see four words. The third one - the longest - is Russian for "English". Move the bullet to that point and then down to the word underneath which means "menu". This then takes you back to the first page of the menu where you press "play". I discovered that this was the sequence after about five attempts.

    ithttp://www.amazon.com/Ostrov-Island-vers...2930&sr=8-3

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  3. Sorry about that link. This is it:

    http://www.amazon.com/Ostrov-Island-vers...2930&sr=8-3

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