The Student

This is the cinema we should be watching right now to rest a little bit of the same old famous faces from Hollywood and the same narratives.

The storyline adapts itself to the times we are living where the ultra Orthodox thinking is starting to rise again. Maybe it's not the end we were expecting to happen but it's the one a Russian direct can afford in their own political context.

The first DVD I've seen in which there is no menu (e.g. chapters; audio; special features, etc.) at the start. It just started, I was initially worried that subtitling would not be present, but turns out subtitling was actually well done & accurately translated. Script is centered about a high school student (possibly in Moscow, Russia), and his isolation from his schoolmates because his newly developed obsession (or is it devotion) to a literal interpretation of The Bible (literalists don't see it as an interpretation, but as the only direct & unquestioned revelation from God) sets him at odds with everyone including his mom. His actions turn most students/school personnel against him (but not all) disrupting the school. He causes his biology teacher to be confrontational to the point she loses it. He believes a true devotee must be willing to die (martyr) for their place in Heaven. Most Christians (including conservative Russian Orthodox Church members) & everyone else will have Hell (i.e. think William Blake's burning Hell) as their destination. He believes prayer is only honest when done in secrecy/privately; temples/churches & anything equivalent to gold (wealth) are a ticket to Hell. Lots of remarkably unbiased intelligent discourse presenting his pov while he tries to defend himself & change others, including the science/biology teacher who is his main counterpoint. To showcase human debauchery there's full nudity (no sex); excessive consumption; vainness. Not a dry talking heads story, but an engaging, at times amusing (in biology a sex-ed demo with a carrot & condom turns hilarious), dramatic story w/a surprising ending.

There are several issues touched upon in this film; some of them very complex, and others, rather simple. First of all, there are no protagonists in this film. All the characters are flawed to some degree; some are extremely flawed. Also, there is no clear delineation between what is right or what is wrong. If you are religious, you will believe in one set of outcomes; if you are agnostic or atheistic, you will believe in other outcomes. Does God exist? Thomas Tafero wrote about this issue in his book (Amazon.com) called The Defense, where he had to defend his atheistic beliefs against six religious leaders of different faiths to receive his PHD (very good reading I might add). Aside from the religious aspect, there are the sexual overtones of the film, and finally the persecution of innocent teachers by school administrators who constantly take the word of students over the teachers (I had this experience at Jimei University in China, when one of the administrators believed six students who lived in the same dorm who cheated on their final paper. I had to eventually pass them after giving them all an F). I never thought I would see the day when Soviet schools would be so permissive. The film is interesting to see the current state of Russian education.

like many Russian contemporary films, it seems be portrait of near reality from East. in fact, it is a puzzle of questions. about school and about teenager crisis, about the use of religion and the answer of Church, about friendship and fear and teachers, about situation of a student as personal struggle for a woman looking defining his life direction. it could be perceived as attack against Chistianity, as satire or as precise reflection of the state of school. but, more important, it has two virtues - the performances - especially the performance of the lead actor and the status of support for reflection about near every day reality. because it gives nothing new. well known facts, the crisis of a teenager, empty head teachers, a revolutionary Biology teacher, her boy friend, a young student looking for love. each as part of a lucid and admirable interrogation. so, an admirable work.

Yet another bleak, cynical Russian take on the modern world and its moral conditions (Leviathan, etc). Here, Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov and German playwright Marius Von Mayenburg re-tread the age old argument that pits Christianity against the modern worlds view on human morality. Made in a somewhat trendy, dismal style, with too many shaky hand held shots and some overbearing music - these movie makers, as with so many others over the decades, seem to think they have reached an informed conclusion so, able to convince us all of their superior intellectual standpoint. They have both chosen to overlook the fact that vast numbers who went before them, have concluded that it's an unwinnable topic that leaves more questions than answers – in fact, many who set out to fight against and disprove the wisdom of Christ's word, converted over to it.

They use many of the Bibles strongest passages to substantiate their subservient arguments but the language presented on both sides of their viewpoint tends to suggest that perhaps: The Wisdom of Man is Less than the Foolishness of God. Their protagonist is portrayed as a psychotic who quotes almost verbatim Bible scriptures but, he is ultimately shown to be as crippled as the cripple he tries to heal, then harms. This character offers no real basis to mount a genuine argument. As another reviewer has already stated: Laughable.

Set in a current (surprisingly undisciplined) Russian school, many of the usual hooks are put-out to appeal to our basic instincts: Sexual freedoms (with lashings of nudity and sexual situations) ~ Anti Semitism (with the biology-sex-ed teacher being both anti-Christian and Jewish, in fact - her character simply allows for situations of associated Christian based hatred, to be easily introduced within the ideals of the modern world) ~ Next, there's the headmistress and the teacher of religious studies - both shown to be perhaps out of touch (as one might expect). These movie makers have perfectly armed themselves with so many manipulative character devises to support their biased point of view. It's too easy to mount an argument by designing characters to serve an already formed view.

If the topic leans your way it could appeal - otherwise, stay away.