First show of Nikolay Dostal’s new film “Monk and Demon” took place in museum

July 19, 2016

At the beginning of the event, Nikolay Dostal noted that it was the third presentation of the film “Monk and Demon”. It had been already screened in Moscow and Vologda. The director thanked everybody who helped in the film shooting, in particular: M.N. Sharomazov, director of the Kirillo-Belozersky Museum-Reserve, S.V. Usov, head of the Kirillov district, A.Y. Kotov, Mayor of Kirillov, A.L. Kuznetsov, director of the National Park “Russian North”, A.K. Derevyagin, lieutenant colonel of internal service of the Seventh Union of the Federal Fire-Fighting Service in the Vologda region, and others.

What is the genre of this film? A religious comedy, a fairy tale, fantasy…

“It is not a comedy. We wanted to tell about something serious with a smile, probably even with irony. The tragicomedy is closer to me”, underlined Nikolay Dostal.

The plot of the film is rather simple. When monk Ivan, son of Semyon, retires to a cloister of the first half of the 19th century, the Father Superior feels something unusual and understands that the common lifestyle in the monastery will be broken.

The Father Superior chooses various difficult duties for the monk: to clean out a deep well, to go fishing, to wash clothes. Ivan copes with all trials skillfully. Even Emperor Nickolas I is delighted with his quick wit and far sightedness.

Then the Father Superior sends Ivan to live in seclusion and it turns out that the monk lives with the demon in human disguise named Legion. After the flight of Ivan and Legion to Jerusalem, the demon is ready to retire to a cloister.

“I cherished the idea of the new film after “The Schism” during four years refusing to take part in the projects that were tempting both in spiritual and material plan”, said Nikolay Dostal.

He noted that the story of monk Ivan existed in the saints’ lives and folklore:

“Ivan Semenovich Shaposhnikov lived in the Nilo-Sorsky Hermitage. He was a lay brother and a very righteous man. He became one of the prototypes of the main character of our film”.

Besides, the following story can be read in the Life of Ivan Novgorodsky of the 12th century, “a monk caught a demon in the wash-hand stand. The demon asked to let him go. The monk answered that he would do it if the demon took him to Jerusalem. The demon took the monk back and forth during one night, but started to bring dirt – beer, linen… Then the brethren pinned Ivan’s arms to his sides and put on a float boat in the river. But the float boat went against the stream. The monks dropped on his knees. Later on Ivan became an archimandrite and was canonized. His relics are kept in the St. Sophia Cathedral in Veliky Novgorod”.

Yuri Arabov united fragments of various stories and wrote a wonderful script for the film.

According to the director, the script writer specified the idea of the film in the question “Can the demon become a man?” Work on the film “Monk and Demon” began with the answer to it.

“Monk and Demon” is a deeply moral work that makes people think of Russian soul and a lot of age-old problems of human life.

Nikolay Dostal’s film left a lasting impression on the residents of Kirillov. Having seen “Monk and Demon”, they gave a standing ovation to the director.

You will be able to see the film “Monk and Demon” directed by Nikolay Dostal at the cinema starting from September 8.