Guilt, Faith, and Salvation
Religion in the New Russian Cinema
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
In the 1990s, the Second World War was rarely a subject in Russian films. In new productions, the war once again has a role to play. Religious topics and figures are at the centre of action. Pavel Lungin’s “Ostrov” from late 2006 has become a box office hit. Support from the church and state has facilitated its success, but the success of this film feeds primarily on society’s need for an individual and spiritual confrontation with guilt and forgiveness.
(Osteuropa 1/2009, pp. 97–108)