TRF Fyodorov ENPRO

Genre: Documentary
Format: PAL/SECAM, DV-Cam, DV-AVI
Runtime: 26:56 min
Languages: RU (orig.), EN
Trailers: 4:30 min (EN)

Topic: Father Leonid’s career was clear-cut. As a youth, he himself came to realise the truth of the Universal Church, and left Russia. He studied in Italy and Switzerland, receiving pressure and threats from the Russian embassy in Rome, and converted to Catholicism. He became a Greek Catholic priest and took monastic vows. In 1917 he was named Exarch, the head of the Eastern Rite Catholics in Russia. During his life he suffered serious persecution and banishment and eventually he died of exhaustion in 1935.

Plot: The film opens with very rare material: one of the first Russian documentary films with sound. It is the recording of the "Industrial Party Trial" in the early '20s. Our film is intended to present the spectator with the reality of the show trial in which Leonid Fyodorov was accused and convicted. The Russian actor Sergei Grekov leads the spectator to the places where Leonid Fyodorov grew up, lived and died, and where he was put to trial. Excerpts from the original trial documents enrich the story, showing on the one side the calm and self-assured character of Leonid and on the other hand the anger and hatred of the prosecutors. After his studies in Rome Leonid returned to the East and took the monastic vows in the Studite Monastery of Univ in Ukraine. Live interviews with members of this community and in special with the 90 years old Fr. Gideon, who personally knew Leonid Fyodorov when he was in the monastery, unfold the story of Leonid Fyodorov. He was one of the first who wanted to the Byzantine rite to Russia. Interviews with Monsignor Mikhail Grinchishin, the president of the commission "New martyrs of the XX century" and the known Russian Catholic historian Aleksej Judin enrich this biographical oriented documentary. After the trial Fyodorov was sent into the labor camp of the Solovetsky Islands, where his health considerably suffered under the harsh conditions. Historic footage underlines this reality in a very expressive way. Personal reflections of witnesses round up the picture about the life of Exarch Leonid Fyodorv who was beatified by Pope John II in 2001. 

Artistic considerations: The interchange between historic and actual film material of the same locations is the driving force of this biographical documentary. Guided by the actor Sergei Grekov the spectator is drawn into the story and enabled to understand also the emotional implications of the story of Leonid Fyodorov. Quotations and interviews help to round up the picture and to enlighten the story from various angles. Selected classical pieces were chosen by the author as soundtrack.