"Andrei
Rublev" is film directed by brilliant Russian director Andrey
Tarkovsky - old and classic Russian film I wanted to watch long ago, but did not have time to and finally went to
Tsutaya and borrowed this two VHS.
Andrei
Rublev is the name of legendary icon painter who lived in XV century and became saint after his death. XV century in Russia is time when Tartar nomadic tribes occupied country and endless wars between feudal lords
occurred throughout its territory...Film describes this historical time but also it shows figure of icon painter - man devoted to God and Art, and themes of meaning of faith and art became main
motifs of
the movie...
What is religion for? What the
purpose of art? Andrei is monk and he paints icons - St.Maria, Christ, angels - as believes in kindness and love between people. But he sees the horrors of war - brother kills brother, people seems forgot what they believed from IX century when
Christianity came to Russia from Byzantium...
In second part of the film - the whole process of making church bell is depicted. The moment when people for the first time toll just made bell is breathtaking.....Maybe foreign viewer sees beauty scene in this, but for
Russian it is something more - in this bell, it`s sound and how people react..I watched and although in my life I have never gone to church service I felt like - here it is -something that a lot of us forgot but that remained something deep inside like memory of times.
After revolution religion in any form was forbidden in new Russia. Some churches were destructed, in others restaurants and other entertainment
facilities were set up. It was permitted to write about
Christianity only in negative tone. Artist who like
Tarkovsky touched upon the question of religion and self-
idenfication of Russian nation were either ignored or even forbidden... In 20 years I did not see any of his films (so popular and high accepted abroad) being shown on Russian TV. Only abroad first I knew about him and his works.
When in 90s Soviet economic and political system crashed down, we suddenly realised that we lost our cultural values and heritage also after so many years of living under ideology and inner terror...Only now we are
beginning to return to roots, reconstructing and building from zero churches destroyed 70 years ago.. Without "
pravoslavie" (
Russian orthodox
Christianity), without knowing our history in its full volume and not-deformed form, I believe, Russians could not exist as nation...
This film appeared in far 1966 year make me think about such things today and feel that we still have so much in common with time described.
Here is one of the most famous icon by Andrei
Rublev "Trinity"
