The film opens with a war sequence, in which a young Russian sailor is forced by a Nazi officer to shoot the skipper of his barge in exchange for his own life. Then the action moves to 1974, to the remote Orthodox monastery in the same area where the war episode happened. The former young sailor, now Father Anatolii, lives here as a monk. Apparently known as a holy man, he is visited by many people seeking spiritual and medical help. Father Anatolii deals with many different individuals seeking aid from him. One of these individuals is a pregnant unmarried woman visits Father Anatolii and asks advice about an abortion and Father Anatolii screams at her forbidding her from receiving the abortion stating that she will not get married with or
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Pyotr converted to Eastern Orthodoxy in the nineteen nineties and lives within an isolated village. So in order for Pyotr to play the character of Father Anatolii he did not have to do very much acting and just act like himself in real life. When Pyotr moved to the island he left the majority of all his fame and fortune behind and left and converted his life and became closer to the church as well as God. This resembles the “foolishness for Christ”. Foolishness for Christ refers to behavior such as giving up all one's worldly possessions upon joining a monastic order, or to deliberate flouting of society's conventions to serve a religious purpose – particularly of Christianity. Such individuals were known as both "holy fools" and "blessed fools." The term "blessed" connotes both feeblemindedness and innocence in the eyes of God. This feeling of a “holy foolishness” is a specific practice that is only practiced within the Orthodox Church. This “holy foolishness” has become an incredibly important role within post-soviet Russian life, religion, and work. So more specifically the “holy foolishness” makes up a massive part of the post-soviet Russian culture. Foolishness in Christ is known in Byzantium from the fifth century. One of the first fools was a nun. The church historian Palladius writes that she pretended to be crazy and possessed by evil spirits. To explain this behavior the church historian Palladius quotes the apostle Paul: “Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise” (I Corinthians 3:19). This and similar passages in the New Testament are commonly seen as metaphors directed against total wisdom or old philosophy and not as advice to not turn into a madman. Father Anatolii provokes the other monks, claiming that they ought to fully give
Pyotr converted to Eastern Orthodoxy in the nineteen nineties and lives within an isolated village. So in order for Pyotr to play the character of Father Anatolii he did not have to do very much acting and just act like himself in real life. When Pyotr moved to the island he left the majority of all his fame and fortune behind and left and converted his life and became closer to the church as well as God. This resembles the “foolishness for Christ”. Foolishness for Christ refers to behavior such as giving up all one's worldly possessions upon joining a monastic order, or to deliberate flouting of society's conventions to serve a religious purpose – particularly of Christianity. Such individuals were known as both "holy fools" and "blessed fools." The term "blessed" connotes both feeblemindedness and innocence in the eyes of God. This feeling of a “holy foolishness” is a specific practice that is only practiced within the Orthodox Church. This “holy foolishness” has become an incredibly important role within post-soviet Russian life, religion, and work. So more specifically the “holy foolishness” makes up a massive part of the post-soviet Russian culture. Foolishness in Christ is known in Byzantium from the fifth century. One of the first fools was a nun. The church historian Palladius writes that she pretended to be crazy and possessed by evil spirits. To explain this behavior the church historian Palladius quotes the apostle Paul: “Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise” (I Corinthians 3:19). This and similar passages in the New Testament are commonly seen as metaphors directed against total wisdom or old philosophy and not as advice to not turn into a madman. Father Anatolii provokes the other monks, claiming that they ought to fully give