The Student (M)uchenik
This Cannes Film Festival award-winning feature follows a young man whose growing religious fervor spills into the public sphere.
When Venya refuses to participate in mixed swimming lessons because it is "against his religion," his mother blames shyness. Exempted by the school's devout principal, Venya grows increasingly certain that his strict, rigorous Bible studies give allows him to manipulate all forms of authority. Challenged by a teacher over his dogma, he sets out to eliminate her and subdue an entire community.
Winner of the Francois Chalais Award at Cannes Film Festival. Winner of Best Supporting Actress and Best Composer and nominated for Best Film at the Russian Guild of Film Critics. Selected as Best Film for the Year of Russian Cinema, a government funded event in 2016.
"Kirill Serebrennikov's study of a problem teenager's religious awakening is as aesthetically kinetic as it is intellectually rigorous." - Guy Lodge, Variety
"A serious, sharply mounted drama that gets more engrossing as it moves along." - Godfrey Cheshire, RogerEbert.com
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Comments (3)
Dark beauty. Magnificent acting!
I feel like this has allusions to the current social predicament in Russia. The administrators are representative of the old order--Communist Russia. The father is a representative of the massive influence the Orthodox Church has on politics today. Venya is somewhat of a Putin ...Read more
I feel like this has allusions to the current social predicament in Russia. The administrators are representative of the old order--Communist Russia. The father is a representative of the massive influence the Orthodox Church has on politics today. Venya is somewhat of a Putin figure--all-powerful and unifying, except for the liberal outcasts who dare to question the system (the biology teacher, Elena). Ultimately, homophobia seems to be the only thing Putin can coral national-identity with (Putin often juxtaposes Russia's pure, orthodox heteronormivity and the homoerotic unnatural perversions of the 'West' aka Europe). Venya's death is symbolic of that. I think the film takes a position on the whole circus of personalities with the last scene--Elena nailing herself to the ground. IT reminds me of the Petr Pavlensky, and artist-activist who nailed his balls to the Red Square in protest of the regime. The film says that these pesky outcast progressives are the only ones who belong to the future.
Read less"The Mask You Live In " is wonderful - should be mandatory for middle school children.