Starets Vasiliy Gryaznov

Starets Vasiliy Gryaznov is a searing, polemical excavation of the intersection between religious fervor and social manipulation in the early Soviet era. The narrative disentangles the hagiographic myths surrounding Vasiliy Gryaznov, a real-life merchant-turned-ascetic whose canonization by the Orthodox Church became a flashpoint for ideological warfare. The film meticulously charts his transition from a shrewd man of commerce to a venerated 'elder,' or starets, whose supposed miracles are presented through a lens of profound skepticism. As the peasantry flocks to his feet seeking salvation, the camera acts as an iconoclastic tool, stripping away the incense and liturgy to reveal the machinery of institutional control. The arrival of revolutionary consciousness serves as the ultimate catalyst, challenging the metaphysical foundations of Gryaznov’s influence and replacing the divine mystery with the stark, materialist reality of a changing Russia. It is a cinematic deconstruction of holiness, where the flickering candlelight of the old world is extinguished by the harsh, clarifying dawn of a new political dawn.