The Student

The Student is an amusing character study of a religious fanatic

“The Student” – “(M)uchenik” directed by Kirill Serebrennikov is an attempt to reconsider religious fanaticism in the modern world. The picture is based on the play “Martyr” by German author Marius von Mayenburg and it was adapted to the reality of modern Russia.

In a way the problems touched upon in the film are universal and not connected to one particular religion. Perhaps to talk about Islam is too dangerous for writers nowadays, so the play focused on Christianity. In this sense Christianity is much more aggressive in Russia than in Germany so the change of place was successful in terms of realism. The way the school authorities tolerate the behavior of a fanatic reminds one of the way academia in the West deals with radical Muslim extremists who forcefully install their own rules. However if the film was made about Islam it would not be as funny, because we see too many examples of aggressive behavior of Muslims at school who try to introduce their own customs concerning swimming in pools, clothing, lessons, and the tolerance of school authorities to it. Day by day it is starting to become reality so it is not amusing, but the same situation with a Christian is very comical and gives an opportunity to think why the Western world is giving itself to aggressive fanatics.

An interesting aspect of the film is the constant quoting of the Bible which shows that any religion can become an instrument of aggression. The picture is a sharp and humorous satire. The teachers in the film are very well depicted, they whose heads are full of self contradictory ideas combining Stalinism, Putinism, Communism, Liberalism and religion. The school administration cannot confront a religious fanatic because they themselves do not have any ideas or principles.

When the biology teacher tries to confront Veniamin, she also looks into the Bible, which she interprets in a vulgar and primitive way. The relations between Veniamin and Grigori are interesting; he becomes very close to Veniamin but we see later that Grigori is gay which is the real reason why he becomes his disciple.

The film is shot in a minimalistic way in this low-budget production, but the actors play well and the dialogues are very funny. The ideas of the picture are important, the film has an open end just as our society has an uncertain future with growing extremism and radicalism.