TRF Sakhalin ENPRO

Genre: Documentary
Format: PAL / SECAM, DV-Cam, DV-Avi
Runtime: 28:59 min
Languages: RU (orig.), EN, FR, DE
Trailers: 1:47 (Music), 3:47 (EN)

Awards: Third prize at the XVIII International Festival of Niepokalanov (PL) 2003

Topic: We are in Sakhalin Island, north to Japan: over the centuries all those who ruled the island used it as a colony, a forced labour camp and a place of exile. The film narrates the deep catholic roots of part of its population – the Korean prisoners forced to move there – and the rediscovery of this heritage thanks to a young Polish priest inspired at St. James of Compostela.

Plot: "Expansion of Love" is the subtitle of this cultural movie which describes the spiritual development in this remote corner of the world. The Sakhalin Islands were inhabited by various ethnic Asian cultures over the centuries until it finally fell in the hands of the Soviet Union in 1945. The Island was used by most cultures as a natural prison and penal colony. The main protagonist of the film is Father Yaroslav Vishnevsky, a young Catholic priest who works in Sakhalin, who tells us his story about the natural particularities of the Islands and about the pastoral difficulties and satisfactions he encountered in his work. Different ethnic groups - Koreans, Lithuanians, Poles, Ukrainians, Japanese - today live here together in harmony and they practice their faith openly, but once this was different. The Soviet persecution did not stop before this part of the USSR. Father Yaroslav tells us the stories of several of his parishioners who also contribute with short interviews throughout the film. The history of the Catholic Church in Sakhalin is the main train of thought developed throughout the movie.

Artistic Considerations: The beautiful landscape photography of this movie and the many details of daily life of Sakhalin's Catholic community give the film a very emotional and personal note. Personal stories about hardships and conversion help the spectator to identify with the problematic of the characters. The mostly ethnical music used in the film helps further to enter in the beatiful reality which provides Sakhalin Island and the "Expansion of Love" through the Christian way of life.