The Island (Ostrov), A 2006 film directed by Pavel Lournguine
I disagree with the Washington Post blurb:
“The Island asks the favorite Russian questions: Who is guilty? And to that, it adds another: How can we be redeemed?”
I think the film asks the more subtle question: Who is not guilty? And I think the mistake it makes is in the question of redemption, because it signals a message that the Orthodox monk, Anatoly, could only have attained salvation/been redeemed if it transpired that he was not responsible for his comrade’s death (after years of attempting to atone for a murder he thought he had committed). But how many people (leaders, soldiers, prisoners, civilians) during wartime do have the blood of comrades or neighbors or civilians on their hands? In what kind of black hole of despair does this message leave them/us?
I think the film would have had far greater impact had Anatoly irrefutably killed Tikhon in order to save himself from the Nazis, but later created his own opportunity for redemption by working to save Tikhon’s daughter or by working to help people in general, exactly as we find him doing in the film.
By arguing this point I am not wishing for an actual death/murder in real life, nor am I condoning the repugnant act of betrayal that took place. I do know, however, that I could only hope to act honorably under such horrific circumstances, circumstances that have played out millions of times throughout the history of mankind. For me, the work of the film is to deal candidly with the horror that is at times reality – and its aftermath – rather than indulge in or rely on serendipity thinly disguised as grace. Anatoly had intended to kill Tikhon in order to save himself, and he is now accorded salvation through the lucky accident of having failed despite his best efforts. I think a genuine opportunity to probe the complex shades of human frailty in order to forge more fruitful paths toward forgiveness (from self and society) was squandered.