The Holy Archipelago

THE HOLY ARCHIPELAGO

From Infinity to Eternity
The award-winning film by Sergey Debizhev.
Now playing in theaters

ABOUT THE FILM

“The Holy Archipelago” is the large scale film narration about the life of Solovki cloister. This land has been marked with spiritual, historical and cultural events which left a deep trace in the history and the memory of people. In this film there are regarded profound purports of existence, faith, hope and love – the questions which are so essential for every person.
What is spiritual life of a man?
What is religious tradition and
how is it reflected in contemporary world?
How does faith affect the life of people?
Located on a far edge of Russia, this archipelago as fate willed has become one of the most powerful symbols of Russian spirit.

AWARDS

In 5 months, the film received recognition from film experts and collected 26 international and Russian awards, including:

ABOUT THE FILM

“The Holy Archipelago” is the large scale film narration about the life of Solovki cloister. This land has been marked with spiritual, historical and cultural events which left a deep trace in the history and the memory of people. In this film there are regarded profound purports of existence, faith, hope and love – the questions which are so essential for every person. What is spiritual life of a man?
What is religious tradition and how is it reflected in contemporary world? How does faith affect the life of people? Located on a far edge of Russia, this archipelago as fate willed has become one of the most powerful symbols of Russian spirit.

WATCH THE TRAILER

Now playing in theaters. Find a film screening in your city

Where to watch

PHOTO GALLERY

REVIEWS

The Holy Archipelago is a documentary from Russia, it educates us about the Solovetsky Monastery. The documentary searches for the true meanings of life, faith, hope, and love. The Archipelago is located on the far outskirts of Russia. However, by the will of fate, it has become one of the most powerful symbols of the Russian spirit. Here we will find deep reflections and monologues on issues important in everyone's life. The documentary included many unique shots, including the sacrament of tonsure. The content of the film is in harmony with the breathtaking cinematography. The way the camera captures the fantastic light and nature of Solovki islands is stunning.

Morgana Film Festival

Interview

The combination of the top level of filming with the deep spiritual Orthodox content is a real breakthrough. Russian Orthodoxy should be shown just like this: like the pictures of paradise, fine intellect, living world, exquisite architecture, sharp images. Orthodoxy is beautiful. What a right and rare thought. It is incredibly beautiful, otherworldly, but at the same time so recognizable.

Alexandr Dugin, Russian philosopher, political analyst and sociologist

Film review

Sergei Debizhev

Film's creator

"The avalanche of interest in our film is quite surprising as well as the full cinema houses. All what is happening I call “the miracle of “The Holy Archipelago”. It is a pleasure to see that people yearn for serious cinema and profound values. With our film we tried to set a high standard for the future Russian documentary films both in technical quality and in content filling".

SERGEI DEBIZHEV,

film's creator

"The avalanche of interest in our film is quite surprising as well as the full cinema houses. All what is happening I call “the miracle of “The Holy Archipelago”. It is a pleasure to see that people yearn for serious cinema and profound values. With our film we tried to set a high standard for the future Russian documentary films both in technical quality and in content filling".

The music for the film was written by a very famous Russian rock musician and composer Vyatcheslav Butusov. This is his first experience of composing music to a film.

“In this case I made music to a specially written script, and which is more, to already filmed shots. The music accompanies the picture almost all the time, so I decided to make three music layers slightly different from each other in mood. However, I followed academic tradition, spiritual music and ancient canonic songs, Vyatcheslav Butusov said, - it is surely a very precious experience for me, first of all because the topic of the film is of immense importance for me. I just adore monks and cloisters, and it was all very interesting for me.”

Vyatcheslav Butusov about the film

The music for the film was written by a very famous Russian rock musician and composer Vyatcheslav Butusov.

Meet the Filmmakers

the project team tells about its creation and screenings

Alexei Nemov, the director of photography

“The film like this cannot be simply shot; it is to be lived through.

It took some time for the conventual community to get used to me and start trusting me. It is only then that I managed to imprint those rare shots which you will see in the film.”

Natalie Debizhev, the film producer

“In comparison with a feature film crew, the crew of our film is not big at all

however, it is essential that our crew is a bunch of like-minded people who are keener on the values rather than on timetables. We are thankful to all of those people who helped and supported.”

Maya Manerova, distribution in Russia

“During the prime screenings we could see keen response of the audience

– many people asked when it would be possible to watch this film at the cinemas. It is not surprising, since the film touches upon spiritual aspects which are so essential for everyone in our country.”

Timing

98 minutes

Genre

Documentary

Country

Russia

The year of production

2022

Producers

Natalie Debizhev, Michael Skigin, Vitaly Baranov

With support of

The Ministry of culture of Russia

Film company "Two captains"
hello@2kapitana.ru