Blessed is he who believes High schooler Benjamin Yuzhin, just like Jules from Reading, struck faith and now quotes Holy Scripture at every step. Like all the same Jules, the guy interprets the Gospel literally: zealously preaches the Word of God to his mother and classmates, sabotages biology classes and tries to cure a cripple in the name of God. Two quite similar characters, who are waiting for a completely different fate. In Tarantino, the hero fell into religion because the writer needed to show a charismatic and somewhat comical character who would contrast with his partner. Vince Vega will be absurdly murdered in the toilet, and Jules, who believes in God, will remain perhaps the only character who has a bright future, because with faith he finally has a purpose in life. But in the fate of the schoolboy Benjamin there is not even a hint of a bright future, although it seems that he just as passionately believed in God. Why? The director won't give a clear answer. But at the same time, any viewer after watching will be afraid for the guy and for those around him. But I was taken off the subject. Why did I even remember Pulp Fiction? Because it was only by comparing the religious fanatic brilliantly played by Pyotr Skvortsov to the Tarantinian hero that I managed to get my friends to give me their word that they would go to see this movie. Because there were at least ten times fewer people in the room with me than in the room next door, where Dan Brown was screened. Because the trailer of the picture on youtube after the publication immediately appeared dislikes even more than views, from people turning their noses at the sight of a Russian film and a religious theme.
But it is only the mass audience that needs to be persuaded to pay attention to such a film. Anyone interested in cinema has long taken a picture on pencil, which received one of the prizes at the most prestigious world film festival in Cannes. On September 7, the film premiered at the Gogol Center, where the director and actors presented the film and answered questions from journalists. Expectedly, a movie on such a complex topic will cause the majority of viewers completely contradictory emotions: from admiration to outrage.
It is worth noting that the script of the film is based on the play “(M)Student”, staged also by Serebrennikov, which since 2012 is held in the Gogol Center and many actors of the theater returned to their roles and in the film production. The play itself is based on the work of the German playwright Marius von Mayenburg, but at the same time all events and characters are relevant for any people and any time and therefore the foreign plot fits organically and convincingly into Russian realities. The director brings biblical events to the screen with filigree accuracy. This is not a joke, the film could really be nominated for a famous award for best adapted screenplay. For transferring to the screens of the Old and New Testament, of course. The script of the tape is permeated with a hundred evangelical quotes, which the author was able to successfully put into the mouths of his heroes. At the same time, each quote is accompanied by a mandatory mark on the screen with a reference to the biblical book and chapter. The story of Benjamin is an allusion to the life of Christ. The father of the guy, constantly mentioned by the characters of the tape, never appears on the screen, although he is invisible in Yuzhin’s life. The guy, raised by a single mother, preaches to his classmates his understanding of piety and even gets a faithful disciple, who, however, in the end will betray and be called Judas.
Any dramatic story that does not pamper the viewer with action and special effects, you just need strong actors. Fortunately, “The Apprentice” had a whole backbone of artists engaged in theatrical production, who migrated to the film, but the performer of the main character had to be replaced. Nikita Kukushkin is already 24 years old and it would be difficult for him to look convincingly on the screen as a schoolboy, and therefore the role of Veniamin went to Peter Skvortsov. The young artist can without exaggeration be called the main success of the film - the guy managed not just to play, but to get used to the skin of a religious fanatic. I would also like to note the brave and talented play of other young actors: without the brilliantly executed characters of Alexandra Revenko and Alexander Gorchilin, it would simply be impossible to convincingly reveal the main character. “We have known Petya since childhood and it helped a lot, because we went through a lot together,” says Gorchilin, “but despite all this, “The Apprentice” for us is the first joint work and all my tender and good feelings for this person were manifested in my game and those emotions that I gave my hero.” But perhaps the most powerful and memorable acting work in this film was noted by Victoria Isakova. Her hero, a biology teacher, a convinced atheist and rationalist, contrasted perfectly with an unbalanced fanatic schoolboy. Isakova and Skvortsov turned out to be a very convincing confrontation, reminiscent of the confrontation between a professor of atheism and a believing alcoholic from the “Cargo 200” Alexei Balabanov.
But what did the author want to say with his film? “The Apprentice” is a provocation or a statement, a hooligan trick or a cry of the soul? Only the director himself can answer these questions: Theatre and cinema are specially designed so that we, looking at the heroes, would never do the same as they do. We have to go the other way, to be able to destroy the existing situation in a different way, and not to run with a cross at the front of the streets of the city. Now anyone can be offended and if this is how it is perceived, then we should all just lie down and do nothing. I, in turn, urge you to drop any prejudices and resentments against the director for possible insult to someone’s feelings and look at the details. Take a closer look at the smallest pieces of the narrative, which the author filled his work, and you can consider something more in the drama about a crazy boy. Look closely, and you will see the dear good father expensive rollers, peeking out from under the sleeve. Take a closer look, and you will see how in delirium the guy asks the martyr crucified on the cross, “Do you hear me?”, and he, according to the Nietzschean commandments, is dead silent. Look, and you will eventually notice, in the monologue about the totalitarian dictatorship of God behind the teacher's back, a portrait of the president. Read between the lines and then in any assessments the film will simply disappear.
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