The enthusiasm with which the Greek television series “Saint Paisios – From Farasa to Heaven’1 – which was launched simultaneously on 10 February 2022 on the major broadcasters Mega TV in Greece and Alpha TV in Cyprus, and was soon taken up (initially unofficially) by Orthodox film-loving communities in other countries, entitles us to speak of a social phenomenon that transcends the strictly cinematic sphere.
The historical and cultural context of the series’ emergence
We are justified in speaking of a mass cultural phenomenon (inherent to popular cinema), as a form of pan-Hellenic identity expression, but above all pan-Orthodox, which both Greek-speaking viewers and Orthodox viewers and film enthusiasts everywhere seem to have been in such great need of. Especially since neither in Greece, nor in Cyprus, nor in Romania, Russia, Serbia – that is, in the other predominantly Orthodox countries – do television broadcasters not indulge their audiences with programmes and films that meet the religious needs of the majority of viewers, generally pushing the same internationalist, levelling agenda.
The timing of the series’ launch is not to be overlooked: in the midst of the most drastic pandemic restrictions, with all the fears brought about by the immense global tension, when cinemas and public gatherings were either banned or strictly monitored, and when the small screen at home had become practically the only means of cultural engagement with the surrounding world. On the other hand, the pandemic period, with all its tensions, distortions and disagreements, was a time of fortuitous introspection, which led many to examine their inner selves and draw closer to God.
Thus, the analytical perspective to which the series ‘Saint Paisios – From Farasa to Heaven’ invites us is not strictly filmological, but, first and foremost, one of the sociology of the reception of mass culture and popular entertainment, specifically the sociology of the reception of religious film.
We shall therefore attempt to combine an investigation into the social reception of the series – which we shall situate within the landscape of Christian Orthodox hagiographic cinema (Greek, Balkan and international) – with a (brief) analysis of the series’ audiovisual style, in order to draw practical conclusions regarding the challenges of hagiographic adaptation for the screen.
Of course, both the stages of the series’ genesis and its reception revolve, directly and indirectly, around the charismatic personality of the Venerable Paisios of Mount Athos, as reflected in non-fiction literature, Orthodox documentary cinema and public memory.
The series ‘Agios Paisios – Apo ta Farasa ston Ourano’, produced by the ‘Saint Maximus the Greek’ Institute for Research and Promotion of Christian Culture and Spirituality in Athens, with the support and on the initiative of Vatopedi Monastery on Mount Athos, and produced by Green Olive Films, is a biopic—that is, a dramatised biographical reconstruction, faithfully adapted, based on memoirs, of the life of the much-loved and well-known contemporary saint Paisios the Athonite (1924–1994), one of the most important Athonite ascetics of the 20th century.
The literary and cinematic popularisation of the work and teachings of the Venerable Paisios of Mount Athos
Books
Since the last decade of the 20th century, the biography and works of the Venerable Paisios of Mount Athos have been published in several books, which have been gradually expanded and translated throughout the Orthodox world, gaining great popularity that quickly spread beyond the borders of Greece, reaching Romania, Russia, Serbia, Montenegro and even Syria. The first monograph on Saint Paisios the Hagiorite was published on Mount Athos in 1990, whilst the Saint was still alive, and is entitled ‘Words of Wisdom and Grace of the Elder Paisios the Hagiorite’ (international title); it was written by the hieromonk Makarios Athonite, who compiled in it many of the Saint’s2’s counsels and prophecies. Subsequently, both in Romania and in other countries, further books on his life and teachings have been published, including revised editions and translations of texts written by Saint Paisios himself.
In Romania, the first book dedicated to the Saint is entitled The Life of the Venerable Paisios of Mount Athos; it was written by the hieromonk Isaac of Mount Athos, a disciple of the Father, and was first published by Evanghelismos Publishing in 1998. This biography has undergone numerous reprints, substantially expanded and improved, which have contributed significantly to the dissemination of Saint Paisios’s teachings and life in Romania.
Published in virtually all the languages of the Orthodox world, as well as in languages of international circulation that serve the Orthodox diaspora worldwide, the books on Saint Paisios quickly became global bestsellers, being reprinted in continuous runs for decades, thus revitalising international hagiographic literature. Written in an accessible style yet rich in spiritual substance, both timeless and relevant to the present day, these collections of the Reverend Paisius’s teachings and exemplary deeds have rapidly won over both the academic theological community and the wider masses of practising believers, making a significant contribution to the formation and education of new generations of Orthodox clergy and laity, in the spirit of the Holy Fathers and of authentic Orthodoxy.
The public success of the series ‘Saint Paisios – From Farasa to Heaven’ is largely due to the popularity of the Venerable One’s personality and his charisma, as reflected in monographs and documentary films.
Documentary films
An important means of popularising the life and teachings of Saint Paisios the Athonite has been documentary films, produced on the basis of previously published texts or interviews with the Saint’s disciples and other close associates. The primary written resource remains the international bestseller The Life of the Venerable Paisios of Mount Athos, written by Hieromonk Isaac. There are several documentary films about the life of Saint Paisios, which offer a detailed insight into his life and teachings.
A resource for popularising the spirituality of this great spiritual father is the medium-length documentary film ‘Saint Paisios the Athonite – As I Knew Him’, directed by Hieromonk Athanasius of Simonopetra, a respected Romanian Athonite hymnographer who spent a significant period of time alongside the Venerable Paisios. The documentary, produced in Greek in the form of a monologue by the director, interwoven with a series of interviews with figures who knew the Reverend Father, offers personal testimonies about his life and teachings. It was filmed in various locations, including Mount Athos and Romania, and has been broadcast primarily within Orthodox circles in Greece and Romania, being available on the online platforms of several monasteries and Christian associations, with Romanian subtitles, for example, on the website of Sihăstria Putnei Monastery 3.
A significant contribution to popularising the life and teachings of the Venerable One through film was made by the Russian documentary series, simply titled ‘Paisie Aghioritul’ 4, comprising seven medium-length episodes, produced between 2013 and 2016 by the documentary filmmaker and television producer Aleksandr Kuprin 5 and produced by the Pokrov Orthodox Film Studio in Moscow. Filmed in the places where the Saint lived, the series is very well researched, drawing on both written biographies and interviews and testimonies from the Saint’s spiritual sons, relatives and close associates (such as Rafail Eznepidis, the Saint’s brother, or residents of the town of Konitsa), clergy and laypeople from Greece, journalists and writers, as well as prominent figures in contemporary monasticism (Hieromonk Ephrem of Vatopedi, Metropolitan Athanasius of Limassol, Father Arsenius – a disciple of the Venerable One, Bishop Damian of Sinai – abbot of the Monastery of Saint Catherine in Sinai, Metropolitan Amphilochius of Montenegro, and others). The documentary series, lasting nearly 6 hours, covers virtually the entire life of the Venerable One, from his childhood spent in Farasa, the beginning of his monastic life on Mount Athos, his austere asceticism at the Monastery of St Catherine on Sinai, his return to the Holy Mountain under the guidance of the Russian Father Tikhon, his move to Stavronikita Monastery, then to Panaguda Cell, associated with the Venerable One’s growing popularity, the final years of his life, during which he founded monasteries in the vicinity of Thessaloniki, continuing his spiritual and miracle-working ministry despite his agonising illness, right up to his passing into eternity and his canonisation. The series by the Orthodox documentary-maker Aleksandr Kuprin can be viewed on many Orthodox websites 6, and the first six episodes have been translated into Romanian and are available on the ‘Moldova Ortodoxă’ portal7.
All these documentary resources, both in book form and on film, have contributed significantly to raising awareness of the life and teachings of the Venerable Paisios throughout the Orthodox world. Undoubtedly, the Greek television series – the first fictional film about the life of the Venerable Paisie – drew on their experience as well. However, the documentary films, even though they have enjoyed a wide and enduring audience amongst the faithful, for whom they were intended, have been confined to religious circles and have not benefited from professional promotion, thus failing to reach a very diverse audience—that is, to reach the ‘general public’.
From the hagiographic documentary to fiction
The transition from the Christian biographical (‘hagiographic’) documentary to fiction also involves a significant shift in the target audience, and consequently in the distribution channels. This involves a shift from the relatively small and specialised, yet less aesthetically discerning, religious audience of Christian documentaries (covering the history of the Church, the lives of saints, etc.) to the ‘general public’—which is far more diverse in terms of religious affiliation but somewhat more aesthetically discerning—subscribers to commercial television and streaming services. This leap entails a massive increase in viewership and constitutes the test of the film’s commercial, as well as professional and artistic, viability.
At least from the point of view of the audience—and thus of the commercial and public test—the series ‘Saint Paisios – From Farasa to Heaven’ succeeds in making this leap. To what extent it also succeeds in terms of aesthetic validation by specialist critics is another question, one that is more difficult to answer, given the meagre coverage of the series by Greek-speaking and international film critics and journalists, including those within the pan-Orthodox sphere. We must, of course, also acknowledge that, generally speaking, film critics do not follow the rare appearances of films with Christian themes with much interest. However, this is precisely what interests us. What are the aesthetic, screenwriting and cinematic language challenges involved in the shift from hagiographic documentary to fiction? What are its determining factors, demands and risks? We shall attempt to uncover the answers to all these questions below.
In terms of production, the shift from documentary to fiction entails a substantial increase in budget, logistics and distribution, necessitated by the qualitative leap in the complexity of production, which, in the case of fiction films, involves many more professional disciplines.
As regards Christian fiction films, it is likely that such demands (alongside the ‘ideological’ ones) were what discouraged producers for a long time from tackling such subjects on a commercial basis. Concerns regarding the audience for Christian-themed drama have preoccupied film producers and distributors in the Christian world, particularly in the Orthodox tradition, ever since the emergence of the mainstream Orthodox Christian film ‘movement’ in Eastern Europe.
Christian cinema: from art house to the mainstream
This refers to the shift from art-house cinema—centred on Christian ethical and aesthetic debate, and considered elitist—which emerged in Russia with Andrei Tarkovsky’s Andrei Rublev, but was also developed by Aleksandr Sokurov and others, and, after 1990, by Andrei Zvyagintsev – a type of cinema that was off-putting to producers and distributors from both a commercial and an immediate audience perspective – to accessible, mainstream Christian cinema that nevertheless meets the aesthetic demands of specialists. For a long time, particularly from the death of Andrei Tarkovsky (1986) until the release of Pavel Lunghin’s legendary cult film Ostrov (2006), film industry experts had all but concluded that such a happy compromise between art and commerce was impossible. And yet…
The Case of Russia
The brilliant paradigm shift achieved by Pavel Lungin with Ostrov regarding the audience for Christian art films and, by extension, their commercial viability, gave the green light to producers and distributors in Russia to bring to the screen films with Christian themes, inspired by local traditions and culture, but which, at the same time, met the artistic and intellectual expectations of art-house film audiences. About three years after the release of Ostrov, that is, from 2009 onwards, a whole series of films with Christian themes began to appear in Russia, enjoying great success with audiences and, often, at film festivals, and with critics, covering a wide range of genres – dramas, melodramas and dramedies, animation and even comedies – far exceeding the strictly confessional spectrum 8. Behind these films are filmmakers and actors of the highest repute (such as Nikolai Dreyden, Aleksandr Proshkin, Vladimir Hotinenko, Vera Storozhova, Andrei Proshkin, Aleksandr Petrov, etc.), whose contribution was decisive to the films’ success with audiences, but above all with critics. It is these films that have defined and established the ‘Christian Orthodox cinematic movement’ in post-Soviet Russia. This movement would not have been possible without the pivotal contribution of dedicated directors and, above all, screenwriters – highly skilled professionals with a deep understanding of religion, who are themselves concerned with the state of Christianity and the challenges it faces in today’s world.
In Romania, things are not at all well in this regard. For various reasons, which we shall not discuss here, we cannot speak of the emergence—however tentative—of such a movement, or even of trends within the domestic film industry.
The Balkan model
Minds have, however, been somewhat awakened in the Balkan countries, albeit very late, around 2020 – that is, at the start of the pandemic – when a few debutant or early-career directors plucked up the courage and found the formula for producing hagiographic films that proved hugely popular, particularly amongst Christian audiences. Of particular note are three biographical dramas, which Romanians had the opportunity to see at the first edition of the ‘Quo Vadis’ International Film Festival (Iași, November 2024). Two of these were produced by the ‘Saint Maximus the Greek’ Institute and Vatoped Monastery, which have set out to support a whole programme of Orthodox missionary films 9 – an extremely commendable initiative, which would have been even more fruitful had these Christian missionary institutions also focused on promoting their productions within secular circles, both domestically and internationally – which would have ensured them much greater international visibility, bringing them not only public acclaim but also the recognition of the specialist press.
‘Man of God’ (international title: ‘Man of God’), the dramatised biography of the well-known and much-loved contemporary Saint Nectarios of Aegina, written and directed by the Serbian-born American Yelena Popovic (Greece, 2020). The film was produced, like the series in question, with the support of Vatoped Monastery and the “Saint Maximus the Greek” Institute, and won two awards at prestigious festivals in Russia 10. Right from its release, the film enjoyed a resounding success with audiences in Greece 11, ranking third in the list of films with the highest box-office takings in 2021 12, despite almost unanimously unfavourable reviews from the local press 13, which criticised it for “lack of style”, “absence of dramatic scenes”, clichéd situations, an air of ostentatious piety, and the lack of credibility of the main character and the situations in which he is portrayed 14. This one-sidedness is a pitfall specific to hagiographic missionary films, being accepted as such by a large section of the Christian audience with no artistic discernment, but rejected by more discerning film buffs or those further removed from Christianity, who cannot accept the often crass conventionalism of such films. Film critic Jason Triantafyllides offers a more favourable review of Yelena Popovic’s film 15, praising the film’s aesthetics (which owe much to the visuals) and its restrained direction, but also notes that “the historical accuracy is so meticulous that it sometimes ends up stifling the film”. Here we see, succinctly highlighted, some typical pitfalls of hagiographic film adaptations, which are insufficiently refined artistically, and at times spiritually as well.
In the same category, in terms of subject matter and popularity, falls the biographical docudrama Saint Joseph the Hesychast16*, directed by Alexandros Foteinos and Yiannis Traganidas (Greece, 2020), a documentary reconstruction of the life of another well-known contemporary Athonite saint, performed by professional actors, led by Jonathan Jackson, a renowned Hollywood actor who has converted to Orthodoxy. The English-language film was produced by Skeptik Productions, also under the auspices of the ‘Saint Maximus the Greek’ Institute and Vatopedi Monastery.
In 2022, the biographical drama ‘Saint Paraskevi – A Cross in the Wilderness’17 by Hadzi-Aleksandar Djurović (Serbia-Jordan), with a screenplay by Ljiljana Habjanović-Djurović, based on her highly successful novel, ‘Petkana’ (2001). The film, a hagiographic reconstruction with an interesting artistic concept, had its international premiere in August 2022 at the Moscow International Film Festival and enjoyed an impressive festival run, having been selected and screened at 67 international festivals, where it won a total of 32 awards 18 and was also praised by critics 19 – a notable and welcome exception for Orthodox hagiographic cinema from the Balkans.
The series ‘Saint Paisie – From Farasa to Heaven’
Thus, in 2022, the series “Saint Paisios – From Farasa to Heaven” did not emerge from a vacuum. The groundwork had been laid, the results were more than encouraging and, thanks to the “Saint Maximus the Greek” Institute and Vatoped Monastery, the project’s main coordinators, sufficient managerial experience – and, to some extent, artistic experience – had been gained, and a large, curious and fairly well-defined target audience had emerged – all compelling reasons to take the risk of producing a television series for a wide audience, the first widely popular programme dedicated to the Athonite Saint.
Mega TV, Greece’s first private television channel 20, with national coverage and an audience, and the series’ main distributor, brought with it experience in producing highly popular serials, particularly family soap operas – often frivolous – and commercial comedies – often lacking in substance – which were entirely alien to religious themes and sentiment.
Observations regarding the rigours of hagiographic adaptation
It is precisely this lack of experience in tackling religious or spiritual subjects that is probably primarily responsible for the series’ main artistic shortcomings: insufficient historical contextualisation, poorly developed characters, simplistic dramatic relationships, clichéd and predictable situations, the ostentatious display of piety, and the monotony and repetitiveness of certain dramatic scenes.
Director Stamos Tsamis, a filmmaker specialising in commercial TV series, particularly light-hearted comedies, but a novice in historical and religious film, admits in an interview 21 that he enthusiastically accepted Vatopedi Monastery’s invitation to tackle a cinematic genre and subject matter unlike anything he had previously worked on. It was, he said, his first encounter with living Christianity and the figure of the Venerable Paisios. It is clear that the intentions were good, and they were supported by the cast (led by Prokopis Agathokleous in the title role, a remarkable actor on the Greek stage), who demonstrated empathy and a fairly good grasp of the subject matter. However, as I have already noted, many aspects of the direction leave something to be desired, such as the direction of the child actors in the scenes from the first few episodes—which are almost devoid of conflict—depicting the childhood of the future monk; an issue that should have been compensated for by the intensity of the atmosphere, which is, however, neglected. The dramatic moments in the first few episodes lack conviction, particularly those featuring the children – who feature prominently in the first part of the series – shortcomings that stem not so much from the acting abilities of the young performers in the film, but rather to the director’s ability to coordinate them, even in the case of the main character – the child Arsenie Eznipidis, the future monk Paisie, played by a very young and expressive actor (Paisios Exarchos), but who is insufficiently utilised by the director and in the cinematography to convey the character’s exceptional nature. This is compensated for, to some extent, by Smaragda Smyrnaiou’s performance as the wise and devout grandmother of little Arsenie, the guardian and nurturer of ancestral and Christian traditions within the family, a formidable counsellor and the moral and religious guide for the children; however, the predictability and didacticism of the character portrayed by the venerable actress of the Greek stage—who is herself underutilised dramatically—induce a certain monotony, which is also felt in other episodes of the film.
The spiritual stature of the characters portrayed seems to have daunted both the director and the actors, who construct their characters mimically, simply reciting the lines and actions from the script without developing the role’s motivations. It is particularly jarring, especially in the case of the mature protagonist (alias Prokopis Agathokleous – an endearing but unconvincing presence), as well as other exemplary characters, to hear the hasty, ‘off the cuff’, of memorable, profound aphorisms – usually crystallised from difficult and transformative life experiences – whose impact is not felt in the actors’ performances.
But in a hagiographic adaptation, the screenwriting plays a decisive role. The writer and actor Giorgos Tsiakkas, the series’ screenwriter, has been writing scripts since 1998 for television series and serials broadcast in Greece and Cyprus – comedies ‘about relatives and neighbours’, family and society soap operas such as 22, but he has also tackled more serious subjects, for example in the psychological-religious drama Basilica (2017), as he stated in a 2022 interview with 23. However, these experiences do not seem to have sufficiently familiarised him with the demands of historical-biographical screen adaptations.
It is true that some Christian viewers are tempted to scrutinise the film’s fidelity to the life of the great geronda and to judge the series on this basis. However, an obsession with fidelity can stifle the subject matter and, ultimately, deprive it of its essential spirit, as a Greek film critic, previously quoted 24, points out. How do things stand in this particular case?
The screenplay was based on the monograph by Hieromonk Isaac—a comprehensive and generous text, structured chronologically—as well as other sources, written in accordance with the rigours of canonical hagiographic literature or popular ecclesiastical works, rather than the realist novel. For instance, we do not usually find in hagiographic literature meticulous descriptions of gestures, careful psychological portrayals, explanations of the historical causality of events, atmospheric descriptions, the pursuit of conflicting narrative threads, or the inner development of characters. The hagiographic text serves a predominantly pedagogical and catechetical purpose, which entails a series of narrative conventions and rhetorical formalisms in dialogue and commentary, which the informed reader accepts as such. This is not the case, however, for other readers – or, indeed, viewers – for whom such a didactic tone sounds very unnatural.
For this reason, adapting a hagiographic biography for a fictional film requires a series of detailed script developments and adaptations, designed to make the narrative flow more smoothly, to give substance to the historical backdrop, to flesh out the network of characters, whilst respecting the factual reality and, where necessary, filling in the gaps left by the memoirs, in order to meet the demands of a fictional film, as well as its spiritual requirements.
This involves a stylistic shift, as well as refinements of detail, which are important for lending credibility to the film adaptation intended for a broad and diverse audience. Aspects relating to inner life, mystical experiences, ascetic practices, words of wisdom, possible epiphanies and other key elements that feature in a hagiographic text can only function in a screen adaptation if superimposed upon the objective, realistic narrative layer, with which they must interact organically in terms of both external events (facts) and internal (spiritual) matters. Otherwise, the cinematic adaptation of an exemplary Christian biography will lack credibility.
Such adaptations require a substantial amount of writing and research to organically integrate the historical and social backdrop into the film’s narrative. Our series also endeavours to follow the formula for hagiographic screen adaptations: ‘The saint against the backdrop of his era’. The historical backdrop is indispensable in such a biopic, as it contributes significantly to the film’s authenticity; this entails the careful (yet discreet) portrayal of historical contexts and secondary characters, along with their inherent conflicts. However, these conflicts are absent from the historical depiction in the early episodes; for example, the drama of the resettlement of the Greek population from Cappadocia to mainland Greece, following the 1924 Turkish–Greek Treaty of Population Exchange. The obedience with which the community of free Cappadocian Greeks almost unanimously accepts the order to leave their village and be resettled into the unknown is somewhat implausible. It is troubling that the collective character of the villagers, as well as that of the Reverend’s brothers and sisters, is insufficiently developed; they are presented in a series of domestic rituals dominated by monotony and the sentimentality of an old and precious family album, yet devoid of the specifics of real life. Most of the characters lack inner substance—that is, personality and inner vitality—appearing more like samples plucked from a collection of vintage albums than living, self-aware individuals conscious of their own uniqueness.
Furthermore, in the case of the series, all these shortcomings are compounded by the narrative formalism of the serialised format, which primarily aims to segment the story into episodes, cut at the peak of the suspense – a rule that has also been overlooked in our series.
However, despite all these minor but numerous artistic shortcomings, the film was well received and even enjoyed impressive success amongst the Christian audience 25, and we analysed the reasons for this phenomenon in the first part of the study. The series’ catechetical and spiritual message compensated, in the eyes of the faithful viewers, for its aesthetic shortcomings. We can speak in this case of a work of grace.
The screenwriter confessed that working on this series was a ‘blessed experience’, during which ‘the entire production team 26 – including, or perhaps first and foremost, the actors – constantly felt the holy influence of the Venerable Paisios whilst filming’. This spiritual gain is not to be overlooked, even if it does not automatically imply artistic progress. Many viewers felt closer to the Venerable Paisios after watching even just a few episodes of the series, which, from a missionary and catechetical point of view, is no small thing.
However, for viewers who are agnostic, free-thinkers or estranged from the Church, many of the lines and gestures in the film seem forced, rigid and didactic, belonging to a system of codes alien to them, as the rules, algorithms and conventions of ecclesiastical canons are, by their very nature, internal – that is to say, non-cinematic. Is the series ‘Saint Paisie – From Farasa to Heaven’ intended for them as well, or not? Is this a strictly confessional series, intended solely for an Orthodox audience, or is it aimed at the general public, cultivated by the national television channels that have broadcast it? Did the film’s creators – particularly the screenwriter, director and producers – ask themselves these questions clearly? It would appear not…
Otherwise, it is heartening and invigorating that the newly emerging trend of Christian fiction films aimed at a wide audience is also making inroads into the Balkan region. If we are to have peace, religious freedom and freedom of expression in culture, this trend will certainly evolve and better define its artistic genres, which will become more vigorous and substantial, and thus more effective both artistically and in conveying the religious message.
- 1
Original title: ‘Agios Paisios, From Farasa to Heaven’
- 2
Words of Wisdom and Grace by the First Elder Paisios of Mount Athos, Makarios the Hieromonk, Holy Cell of the Dormition of the Theotokos, Saint Anne – Mount Athos, 1990.
- 3
https://www.sihastriaputnei.ro/recomandari/sfantul-paisie-aghioritul-film-documentar
- 4
“Paisij Sviatogoreț”
- 5
Aleksandr Kuprin: TV producer and Orthodox documentary filmmaker. Since 2001, he has produced documentaries about prominent figures in Russian Orthodoxy, such as: ‘Patriarch Tikhon’
- 6
E.g.: https://pravfilms.ru/load/filmy/filmy_o_svjatykh/film_quot_paisij_svjatogorec_quot_6_serij_smotret_onlajn/5-1-0-568
- 7
https://ortodox.md/viata-sfantului-paisie-aghioritul-in-6-filme-ortodoxe-subtitrat
- 8
Watch films like “The Tsar”
- 9
The Institute’s film-related activities are summarised here: https://pro.imdb.com/company co0857588?r=cons_ats_co_pro&ref=cons_ats_co_pro
- 10
Where it also had its international premiere. The Audience Award at the 43rd Moscow International Film Festival (2021) and the ‘Golden Knight’ Grand Prix
- 11
https://www.orthodoxianewsagency.gr/epikairotita/o-anthropos-tou-theou-me-241-014-eisitiria-mesa-se-treis-evdomades-saronei-stis-kardies-ton-theaton/
- 12
https://www.lifo.gr/now/entertainment/oi-10-pio-emporikes-tainies-toy-2021-stin-ellada
- 13
E.g.: https://flix.gr/news/box-office-26-august-2021.html.
- 14
Review by Yannis Vasiliou, 22 July 2021, https://www.lifo.gr/guide/cinema/movies/o-anthropos-toy-theoy
- 15
The Man of God: A review by Iason Triantafyllidis, 27 August 2021, https://www.orthodoxianewsagency.gr/epikairotita/o-anthropos-tou-theou-i-kritiki-tou-iasona-triantafyllidi/.
- 16
International title: ‘Saint Joseph the Hesychast’
- 17
Original title: ‘Sveta Petka – Baptism in the Desert’
- 18
https://quo-vadis.ro/en/cross-desert-saint-paraskevi
- 19
E.g.: ‘A Cross in the Desert’: A visually enthralling journey of faith and temptation, by Israa Radaydeh, in: Jordan News, 26 June 2023, https://mtel.global/en/news/sveta-petka-krst-u-pustinji; also – a rare exception! – a publication specialising in film music, ‘Maintitles – film music community’
- 20
Dating from 1989. https://www.megatv.com/.
- 21
Source: Chora tou Axoritou website: https://choratouaxoritou.gr/posts/179462?, 16 February 2022.
- 22
Just like ‘Vourate Geitonoi: The Movie’
- 23
“…This isn’t the first time I’ve written a series with spiritual content. But these were only broadcast on Cypriot television. In Greece, many people came to know about them via the internet. I’m talking about the series ‘Basilica’
- 24
Jason Triantafyllides, The Man of God: A Review by Jason Triantafyllides, 27 August 2021, https://www.orthodoxianewsagency.gr/epikairotita/o-anthropos-tou-theou-i-kritiki-tou-iasona-triantafyllidi/.
- 25
This is evident from the comments posted by viewers on YouTube and on the forums where the video was uploaded.
- 26
As the lead actor, the director and the screenwriter themselves admit.