Reviewed by Lizzie Husher
Stars Pyotr Mamanov, Viktor Sukhorukov, Dimitriy Dyuzhov, Yuriy Kuznetsov, Viktoriya Isakova, Nina Usatova, Yana Yesipovich, Olga Demidovax
Written by Dmitri Sobolev
Certification UK 12A
Runtime 112 minutes
Directed by Pavel Lungin
The Island is a highly visual film concerning the often unifying but sometimes alienating effect of faith on the human condition; Mamanov’s lead will at once annoy, amuse and elicit great pity.
The film opens as Anatoly serves on a Russian Barge during the Second World War. When it’s invaded by German soldiers Anatoly is given a sadistic ultimatum: either shoot and kill your captain or be killed. With the coal worker choosing the former he soon finds himself and the wrecked barge washed up on the shores of an island inhabited by monks. Thirty years later Anatoly is still on the island, and although now a monk, he segregates himself from his fellow holy men, choosing to spend his time in the boiler instead of the monastery, and continuously playing pranks on the monks and behaving oddly. Anatoly also receives mainland visitors who believe the old man to possess powers of healing and religious prominence, and whilst it appears his ‘remedial powers’ do in fact have an effect on the subjects, the acts may be designed more for his own salvation than anything else.
Whilst the film is slow, with its sweeping widescreen shots of the Russian snowy winter and Anatoly’s joyless habitat, and the repetitive scriptural dialogue among the whistling winds, there is no doubt it is intended to be so. The very pace reflects the laboriousness of Anatoly’s life and the vocational direction chosen by the monks; just like the protagonist we can’t rest easy.
Mamanov does the complex character justice, and gives him all the charm and passion that is required to sustain our attention whilst his eccentric mannerisms resulting from his torment and isolation are always subtly present. The supporting cast are reliable, the monks played by Viktor Sukhorukov and Dimitriy Dyuzhov provide some intelligent comic relief as their foolishness gradually comes to overshadow that of the Mamanov’s central ‘fool’.
A heavy but ultimately rewarding tale of sin, redemption and isolation; worth watching if you have the patience.