A movie on a monk

‘Octpob’ (The Island), Russian biographical film about a fictional 20th century Eastern Orthodox monk will be screened at 6.00 pm on Friday, August 10 2012 at the Russian Centre Auditorium, Colombo 7.

The film which closed the 2006 Venice Film Festival, proved to be a moderate box-office success and won both the Nika Award and the Golden Eagle Award as the Best Russian film of 2006.

The opening plan takes place during World War II. A German frigate captures a small barge in the sea, carrying Russian coal. The Nazis occupy the ship, forcing stoker Anatoli to give up the cap- tain and kill him with a gun. Trembling with fear, he shoots his captain, who falls into the see. Anatoli is left alone on the boobytrapped ship, that explodes within minutes. Then, the action moves in to 1976, when Anatoli lives in a small Orthodox Christian monastery, on an isolated northern Russian island. He works as a stoker at the boiler room of the monastery, all day carting a wheelbarrow with coal, sleeping on a pile of coal, praying and living there. He acts very weirdly -e.g. clucking like a cock-, and his strangeness confuses his fellow monks, who call him a prankster. But lay people arrive on the island from all around the region to see him, believing that Anatoli is a holy man, able to provide wise counsel and to cure sicknesses.

However, Anatoli suffers mourning for his past…

The filming location was the city of Kem, in Karelia, on the shores of the White Sea.

The limited number of seats will be available and the entrance will be on ticket priced at Rs. 100.