The Priest

June 1941. Alexander, a priest in a small village in Soviet Latvia, is living an ordinary life with his wife. Two days later German troops take the village. Wanting to win the local population over, the occupiers reopen the Orthodox churches the Soviet authorities had closed, and Alexander is given a post at the mission in Pskov. The priest ends up between two powers. Vladimir Khotinenko's film starts from the real Pskov Orthodox Mission and from a real priest, but rebuilds the story. The historical fact is plain: the mission operated with German permission, and when the Soviets returned its clergy were prosecuted for collaboration. The film defends its priest, while academic criticism objects to the production's ideological frame with the church at its centre. Sergei Makovetsky plays Alexander.