Ostrov came out in 2006 and was shown at the prestigious Venice Film Festival that same year. It is a beautiful story about a man who pretends to be Christ and his journey to spiritual perfection. Even though this movie wasn’t about a specific fool-for-Christ, it was inspired by the lives of such saints in the Orthodox faith. To put it briefly, a fool-for-Christ is someone who acts, talks, and dresses like they are crazy to hide their holiness, which comes from being close to God. When you look at and learn about these saints, you can see that they have all the good qualities of a perfect Christian. Ostrov takes place in 1976 at a monastery in the frozen, desolate wilderness of Northern Russia. It is the story of Fr. Anatoly, a monk who lives with the guilt of killing his naval captain out of fear when he was captured by a Nazi patrol more than 30 years ago. He gives his whole life to God and asks forgiveness for the things he has done in the past. As a result, he becomes a saint, but he hides his goodness by acting like a “fool-for-Christ.” But when he can, he takes a small boat and goes to a small island to be alone. There, he prays the Jesus prayer and talks about how sad he is that his captain was killed. Fr. Anatoly acts strangely and often pulls childish tricks on the monks he leads. Fr. Job, a hieromonk, doesn’t understand why Fr. Anatoly treats him the way he does and thinks that Fr. Anatoly’s behavior is a problem for life at the monastery. Even though God gave him the ability to see into the future, no one thinks he’s a saint. Fr. Anatoly hides his identity in many ways, even when pilgrims come to find this famous “holy man.” The movie is a collection of stories, or even parables, that show how wise this simple fool-for-Christ really was. Fr. Anatoly’s “craziness” shows the monks and pilgrims how foolish and hard-hearted they are.

The person is Fr. Job is a monk who always does what the law says, but he doesn’t understand what it means to be a Christian. In one scene, Fr. Anatoly asks him why Cain killed Abel, and even though he is smart and well-read, he can’t answer. Fr. Job is a serious monk who has something against Fr. Anatoly. Fr. Job wants the Abbot, Fr. Filaret, to like him, so he tells him often about what Fr. Anatoly has been up to. We can see that he is jealous of Fr. Anatoly, but at the same time, we feel sorry for him because Fr. Job tries so hard to make everyone happy. He takes care of all the problems in the monastery, including how the laundry is hung on a line. He thinks this is what is expected of him, but Fr. Anatoly just wants him to “love.” Another important part of the movie is how spiritually blind people who ask God for help can be hypocritical. In one scene, a mother comes with her young son, who can’t walk because his hip is broken. Fr. Anatoly prays hard for the boy, which is clear by how tired he is afterward. The boy starts to feel better right away, but Fr. Anatoly tells him he needs to stay overnight and get Communion to be completely healed. But the mother is more worried about losing her job if she doesn’t come back, even though she cried and asked for help before. Ostrov tells this and other stories to show how we can be so caught up in the world, even when we see miracles or need to do something to be completely healed. This connects well with the concept of relational identity and shows how this movie is correlated to one of the themes of the hidden god tradition.