Story of Penance Resonates With Russian Viewers

"The Island," which is still showing in some theaters in Russia, made an early television appearance on Jan. 7 -- Orthodox Christmas. According to TNS Gallup Media in Russia, the film's viewership was second only to President Vladimir Putin's New Year's address. More than 40 percent of Russians have seen the movie, which once seemed destined for a small audience of intelligentsia.

The film stars Pyotr Mamonov, an actor and musician with cult status in Russia. In the 1980s, he fronted the underground punk band Zvuki Mu, which toured the United States in 1989. In 1990, Mamonov starred as a Jewish saxophonist and alcoholic in Lungin's "Taxi Blues," a film that earned Lungin the best director award at Cannes.

Then Mamonov, his career full of promise, became a hermit in a village outside Moscow. And Lungin moved to Paris to make films about Russia.

Lungin returned to Moscow in 2003 and, soon after, took on the script for "The Island," written by Moscow film student Dmitri Sobolev. The director persuaded Mamonov to play the protagonist.

At the Golden Eagle awards last month, "The Island" won in the categories of feature film, director, actor, cinematography, supporting actor and screenplay.

Mamonov's portrayal of Anatoly "is half-acting and half-Mamonov," Lungin said.

The actor is known in Russia for his unexpected appearances and y urodivy, or wise fool, ways. His rambling acceptance speech for his Golden Eagle -- during which he called Putin a "sissy," told Russian women to make babies and worried that his grandchildren would be speaking Chinese -- was yanked off the air by programmers but became a sensation on the Internet.

"The yurodivy speaks out what everyone else thinks and would like to say," said Ivanova, the film critic. "But the freak is the only one who can say it and get away with it."

Lungin, who is working on a biography of Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff, said the film "was the opposite of mainstream, and then it was accepted by the mainstream. This was absolutely surprising, and it says something about how people are feeling."