Russian film director Sergei Debizhev recently released a film called The Holy Archipelago. It is a moving documentary of the Solovki monastery and its everyday life. With footage including the life of the monastery and the natural cycles around the monastery it touches on some of the deepest searchings of the human soul. We highly recommend you check out the trailer, as well as the translated article below giving a summary of the film. As it is machine translated, we apologize in advance for any errors.

Image: Solovki Monastery

This year at the 44th Moscow International Film Festival (MIFF), the prestigious "Silver Saint George" statuette was awarded as the best film in the Documentary Film Competition to director Sergei Debizhev's film "The Holy Archipelago," which tells the story of life in the Solovetsky monastery.

98 minutes pass in the same breath. Stunning winter and summer aerial footage and striking depth shots grab your attention and don't let you get bored for a second.

There may be more questions than answers, but that's what characterizes a really good documentary, which doesn't aim to go deep into the centuries-long history of Solovki monastery, which would take 98 hours, but opens a door to the world of further personal research and personal discoveries.

According to director Sergei Debizhev, "We have recently begun to discuss quite seriously the meaning of documentary, its role, and what its future path is.

- Of course we understand that cinema is a weapon of mass destruction, the question is in whose hands it is and with what sign it is used, - said the author of the picture.

The director feels justified that it's time to move "to a positive agenda" both in documentaries and fiction, because "the time when cinema either scares or tickles is over, and we have to start working with big meanings, because people are quite complex creatures and they deserve to talk to them about serious things, deep things related to their souls, to their place in life, to their goals.”

When asked why Solovki was chosen for the film, the director said that "there are spiritual centers, like clockwork. There are precious stones around which everything else revolves and there are a number of such key points, such powerful spiritual centers in our country and Solovki is the most remote, closed and most powerful spiritual center, which is also a center of attraction. There have been some films made about it, but there hasn't been such a large-scale one yet.

Music for the "Holy Archipelago" was written by the famous rock musician Vyacheslav Butusov. He said that in his first experience as a film composer he was, "personally guided by academic music, sacred music, the old well-known canonical chants.”

- Some of the excerpts sound like reworkings, but these are also author's excerpts. For me, this is a very valuable experience for the reason, first of all, because this topic for me is the most important! It was very interesting for me. And when a person is interested, he tries to do his best, - said Vyacheslav Butusov.

Vyacheslav Butusov (center) and Sergey Debizhev (far right) at the 44th MIFF. Photo: Nikolai Kislichko and Elena Hormann

The film "The Holy Archipelago" for the first time shows monastic tonsure in detail. According to the director, the monastic tonsure was filmed for the first time with the blessing of the abbot of the Solovetsky monastery Bishop Porphyry of Ozersk.

- I must say that it was not easy to get into this measured concentrated calm prayerful life of the monastery, but step by step monks began to understand how delicate our approach is, how deeply we are trying to shoot and so gradually the rector became friendly to us and the monks began to help, - said Sergey Debizhev.

The creators of the "Holy Archipelago" are going to show it at many festivals and then release the film in wide release.

Directed by the picture it seems that in our time it is very important to see "a movie with a spiritual, Orthodox orientation that is not just quality, but truly expressive.”

- Those things that are talked about in the film, that are touched upon in the spiritual sphere, they need to be talked about very expressively and very powerfully, and then they will really start to work. We have taken the first step and others will follow. I feel that there is a demand in society, both for serious, profound themes and for discussion of some important essential things. In its essence, documentary filmmaking is the last island of truth in the modern world. Because feature films are made up from the very beginning, even if they are based on real events, they are fantasy," Sergei Debizhev concluded.

And then there are whales in the film, giant beluga whales that come to the White Sea in summer. Cameraman Alexey Nemov turned out to be a real "charmer" of animals - whales and seals came to his tiny camera, tied to a gaff and lowered into the water.

What is this film about? About love, about faith, about Orthodoxy, about life, about the soul, about peace, and about nature!