TRF Chaadaev ENPRO

Genre: Docu-Fiction
Format: PAL/SECAM, DV-Cam, DV-AVI
Runtime: 30:27 min
Languages: RU (orig.), EN
Trailers: 1:18 (EN), 2:01 (Music), 4:40 (EN)

Awards: Laureate at the National Prize "Saint Anna", Moscow 2008

Topic: Chadaeev had a major influence on the philosophical and religious Russian thought of the 19th Century. His search for freedom and his call for the unity of Churches induced authorities to consider him a madman. Thanks to a contemporary protagonist the film explores the actual contribution of his deep thinking.

Plot: The particular construction of this film consists in a step by step reflection about some main philosophical thoughts of the Russian religious philosopher Pyotr Chaadaev through which our main actor leads. After a brief introduction about the person of Chaadaev and his Letter "Apologia of a Madman", which provided the title of the movie, the reflections enter into short considerations about the true sense of patriotism, the true understanding of the unlimited freedom of the human intellect in relation with faith, the supreme principle of unity which should establish the reign of truth among people, the necessity of order to ensure social growth, the meaning of art in East and West, the religious isolation of Russia and the attempts of the past to unite the cultures, the fact that Russia should be a connecting portal between East and West, and finally the realization that this goal can only be achieved through the reunification of the different branches of the Christian Churches.

Artistic considerations: This film has a rather contemplative character. Relatively short reflections are intertwined with passages of allegoric pictures of characteristic locations in Moscow, through which the actor leads us. In his thoughts he follows a photograph of Pyotr Chaadaev as child, which for him has become alive, but which he is not able to hold on to. So it keeps disappearing until finally, in the moment he thinks to have crasped the main idea of Chaadaev's train of thought, the image is replaced by a real child of the present day generation, so as to ensure that this idea never dies. The powerful music of J.S. Bach, Gustav Mahler, Franz Joseph Haydn, and Carl Maria von Weber accompany this unique opera in order to guide emotionally the spectator's personal reflections.