An aggravating combination of piousness, arty self-pity, and knowing silliness meant to speak to higher spiritual truths.
The Island (2007)
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Reviews Counted:7
Fresh:4
Rotten:3
Average Rating:6.6/10
Theatrical Release:Oct 26, 2007 Limited
Synopsis:
Anatoly, a stoker on a Russian barge during World War II, is captured by Germans, forced to shoot his own captain, and left for dead. Rescued by monks from a nearby monastery, he still lives among...
Anatoly, a stoker on a Russian barge during World War II, is captured by Germans, forced to shoot his own captain, and left for dead. Rescued by monks from a nearby monastery, he still lives among them 30 years later. Now a gaunt, bearded hermit living a penitent life, he stokes the monastery's boiler and compulsively revisits the scene of his wartime crime, desperate for God's forgiveness. His antics annoy the other monks, but the local people believe he has holy powers of healing and foresight. But with the arrival of a man and his daughter, Anatoly's soul may finally find peace.
Pavel Lounguine's film is mesmerizing. The extreme isolation of these islands, surrounded by the icy White Sea, allows him to dispense with anything extraneous to an existential meditation on faith and salvation.
Played beautifully by Russian rock star Pyotr Mamonov, Anatoly is a deeply moving character. His devotion is beyond question, but his sanity is not. A pariah to the more pious monks, he acts the lunatic and delights in pranks and mocking ritual. And yet only Anatoly embraces asceticism, while others forego neither comforts nor possessions. Is it possible that God would work through this ornery recluse? Of course, Lounguine's concern exceeds our hermit's conscience. The Island is a heartfelt contemplation of Russian society's soul, flung into an era of corrupting materialism.
--© Sundance Film Festival
Starring: Pyotr Mamonov, Viktor Sukhorukov, Dmitri Dyuzhev, Yuri Kuznetsov
Starring: Pyotr Mamonov, Viktor Sukhorukov, Dmitri Dyuzhev, Yuri Kuznetsov, Viktoriya Isakova, Nina Usatova
Director: Pavel Lounguine
Director: Pavel Lounguine
Screenwriter: Dmitri Sobolev
Producer: Pavel Lounguine, Sergei Shumakov
Composer: Vladimir Martynov
Studio: Film Movement
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Reviews for The Island
The island is located somewhere in Russia's icy White Sea, though it may as well be a hamlet of Mordor, a backdrop for a study of spiritual crisis that is as predictable as the film's monochromatic color palette.
Longuine pulls all these elements together into a deeply moving exploration of sin, redemption, and faith.
The Island is an aimless and unconvincing parable masquerading as a Bergmanesque art film.
Almost a sinful pleasure is Andrey Zhegalov's striking widescreen cinematography.
Tonal shifts are too jarring and its portrayal of Anatoly is too sketchy to make him more than an outline of a Dostoyevskian protagonist, but Ostrov certainly has a lot of interesting ideas.
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