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Documentary cinemaThe Unfrocked Genre: A documentary film Sreenplay: А.Кurayev
The Unfrocked Director’s Explanation Our film is a documentary essay about the inner freedom, about the choice of the road of responsibility for own destinies and for the close kin. Film characters are church priests who by canon laws are temporarily banned from service: Priest Stanislav Kondaurov, Donetsk and Hierodeacon Prokhor (Lisitsyn), a former conventual of Nil-Stolobnyy Monastery on Lake Seliger. Priests banned from the service and who had to renounce voluntarily their church positions are often humiliatingly called the Unfrocked. When one thinks about an unfrocked priest, he more often than not recalls a comedy actor Pugovkin playing a role of Father Fyodor in Gayday’s 12 Chairs, holding a piece of sausage. This word in Russian is really humiliating. It brings associations of a cartoon character. Not so in our film. We are painting our cinematographic portraits cautiously and seriously. They did not betray their faith and they did not give it up for profit. They are unable to conduct service because the Church is stern and it has strict rules. A man is banned from the service, for instance, if he, while married, falls in love with another woman and lives with her. Some secular occupations, like acting, cannot be combined with the holy service. Our heroes accepted canon bans with humbleness and fortitude. The camera shows the heroes in their current environment: Priest Stanislav is at his secular job and with his children whom he loves. Hierodeacon Prokhor is with his family: his wife and little son during his trip to Nil-Stolobnyy Monastery where he served. From time to time, the film will be complemented with excerpts of their revelations about themselves, about life and the God. God forbid, we do not intend to create an apology to the unfrocked, to promote willfulness and negligence to the canon law. We do intend to state that the man is given a free will by the God and, therefore, is capable of making mistakes and commit reprehensible acts, but he does not separate himself from the God. What to do to make it right? Suppress one’s feelings? We do not have a ready answer. We do not encourage other priests to yield to temptations. And if a man understands that he can no longer lie and hide, what does he have to do to make it right? The film will not have a narration. The heroes will tell about themselves both in front of camera and on voiceover.
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