Sergei Makovetsky: “When I was in uniform, I didn’t dare smoke”

In the new film by Vladimir Khotinenko "Pop" Sergey Makovetsky played the main role of the priest, father Alexander. "Pop" tells the story of the Pskov Orthodox Mission, which restored church life in the Pskov region and the Baltic states, occupied by the Nazis - and largely under their control. At the same time, the priests - Father Alexander was one of them - helped the prisoners and partisans. When the Germans retreated in 1944, most of the mission remained and were arrested by the NKVD.

For the creation of the picture, the director received the blessing of Patriarch Alexy II. The premiere was scheduled for Easter - in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Sergei Makovetsky told Elena Mukhametshina that patriotism can be different and that it is not worth saying that something did not happen, if it actually happened.

In the film "Pop", many are looking for a super-idea, a subtext in it. Why do you think?

You don't have to look for it. The film does not agitate for anything, does not try to prove anything to the viewer. This is a film about h-e-l-o-in-e-k-e, who fell into exceptional circumstances. This is part of our history with you. And the time that the film tells about is very controversial, difficult. History has been rewritten so many times. All viewers react to the picture in different ways, the main thing is that no one remains indifferent. I myself saw how people left the hall with tears in their eyes.

What was it like playing a priest?

It was scary, because I had to know a lot, try before filming, see. At least pick up a censer in order to understand how it exists in the hands, so that the embers do not crumble. It's a special art - censing. This is taught for a long time in seminaries.

How did you prepare?

Read literature, watched, listened. We had a wonderful consultant, Father Kirill, rector of the church on Sukharevka. We met with him after every day of shooting and discussed the next scene. Discussed those phrases that I had doubts. There was, for example, a scene in which one of the characters mocks Father Alexander, talking about his crimes. And my hero says: "There will be no forgiveness for you, Vladykin, either in this world or in the next." I felt that this was not quite the right phrase. In it, Father Alexander takes too much upon himself. He somehow knows. It is known only to the Almighty: there will be forgiveness or not. And there are times when a person receives forgiveness at the last second. The Lord gives us every second the choice of what to do. Therefore, it seemed to me that this phrase is not entirely true. We found another: “You don’t repent, what forgiveness for you.” It sounds completely different, you see, than "you will not be forgiven" - there is too much pride in this one. A true father does not dare to say so. And everything in such discussions, in samples, was carefully done. I smoke a lot, but when I was in vestments, I did not dare to do so. If I wanted to smoke, I would take off my clothes and stay in my suit. There are things that cannot be done.

Is your film patriotic?

What is considered patriotism? To live according to faith, according to conscience - is this not patriotism? For me, this is a film about an amazing person who does nothing heroic. He doesn't do heroic deeds. He lives the way a person should probably live - to his heart's content, helping, saving, praying. Its very existence is an ordinary feat. Very many priests of the Orthodox Mission participated in the partisan movement, helped the partisans, for which they were shot by the Germans.

But your hero father Alexander did not help, right?

Patriotism is different. Who, if not Father Alexander, serves the Motherland? Is this not a service to the Motherland - to support people, to help prisoners? The church is the only one who helped the prisoners. The convention has not been signed. All people who were captured were considered traitors.

But did not help the partisans?

It didn't make it into the movie. But in the story, he hid the partisan Lugotintsev under his dome when he was wounded. He nursed the man who tried to kill him, risking himself, risking his adopted children and his mother. The cops might have come and found him.

Somewhere they wrote that the real father Alexander emigrated, do you know something about this?

It is not true. It was Father George Beningsen who emigrated. And father Alexander got fifteen years, even twenty. And he sat from call to call. It was planted in 1944 and only emerged in 1959. Even after 1953, he was not released.

Germans, fascists in this film are shown humane. Is there some sort of re-evaluation going on?

This is not an overestimation. No one shows the Germans philanthropic. We know very well their atrocities, ruined, burned villages. Nobody is trying to rewrite history. But in the first months the Germans behaved very loyally. They thought they were liberators. I saw a lot of photos, read about it. For example, they gave peasants allotments of land and said - work for yourself and give to the German fund not 99%, as in the surplus, but half. Then the Soviet troops came: “Did you plow? Did you give?" “But I had to feed my family.” - "You are a traitor because you helped Germany." The same question was raised in the NKVD. People needed to survive somehow.

One of the lines in the film is “if there hadn't been a war, all the churches would have been destroyed.” It turns out that the Nazis saved the Russian Orthodox Church?

The churches would indeed have been destroyed if the war had not happened. This is a very difficult turn of our history, a difficult test that the Lord has sent us. Why the Pskov mission? Because the Pskov land was practically atheistic - everything was burned and destroyed there. And all the temples were turned into clubs - there was not a single functioning temple, there was a desert. Therefore, the Germans revived the church on this land. And imagine what happiness for the priest, who can again enter the temple, desecrated by the Bolsheviks. And again to serve, to send trebs, to baptize, to bury, to pray. We forget why we are alive on this earth.

Because our grandfathers won that war, didn't they?

But in addition to the exploits of soldiers, there is a spiritual feat. Do you think that prayer has less power than a bullet? It has great power, and how many inexplicable miracles there are. When the Khan's army approached the city, an icon of the Mother of God stood on the walls of the city, and the army saw the wave that drove them away. They turned back and left. And what else but providence was when the Germans entered Petersburg and turned back.

The strength of the spirit of the Soviet people?

Do you want to explain everything only by human feat? Yes, I do not take away the human feat of our grandfathers and great-grandfathers. What do you want to accuse me of?

Just to the question of how the veterans would react to this film, you answered that you cannot rely on the memory of veterans. Kind of embarrassing for the veterans.

Yes, I said. I don't believe that veterans will take this film badly. Memory is selective. Yesterday I heard Alexei German Jr., he spoke about the real situation with his family, when a train with prisoners was traveling and at one of the stations a German soldier approached one train, opened the door and said: “Go away.” And thus he saved, as I understand it, Alexei's grandmother. Or he said that his relatives were going to Babi Yar and one of the officers pulled them out of this line. If it was in fact - should I say that it was not? If one of the German soldiers did not shoot at a person, if he refused to shoot - to say that this did not happen?

That is, it's time to talk about the fact that not all Germans were bad then?

In this film, no one divides anyone into good and bad. And to say that veterans will be offended by something is strange. Today, the veteran will say, yes, we went "for the Motherland, for Stalin." But he will forget that there were detachments behind them. This picture is the story of the priest Alexander. What can be the resentment of veterans on the film? What? Is it not shown how the Germans commit atrocities? What about the execution scene?

The premiere of the film will take place in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior - do you think this is normal?

Why not? There is also a special Hall of church cathedrals. I think this is very good. And thanks to His Holiness Patriarch Kirill, who blessed and allowed.

That is, in your opinion, the church and mass culture are compatible?

This is not mass culture. There are films of different genres. There is "Avatar", and there is the film "Pop" - these are two completely different poles. But despite the complex theme of the film "Pop", it is understandable to any viewer, regardless of age and religion.