“Repentance – it is simply called by the name of evil” – BBC

Polish director Krzysztof Zanussi told “Gazeta.ru” about his film “foreign body”, coming out in cinemas in Russia.

In rolling out “foreign body “- a new picture of the Polish film classic Krzysztof Zanussi. This is a dramatic love story – to God, to the government and to the people who start in Italy, continued in Poland and ends in Russia. Believer and a pure heart young Italian Angelo loves polka Kasia, and she is going to return home, to give vows and become the bride of Christ. The Italian is not appeased – is arranged in the Polish branch of the big energy corporations, to be near. However, the energy giant is a real repository of evil, and the work it prepares a lot of temptations for virtuous Italian; in fact, the further course of the story is a study of the Gospel of the aphorism “evil communications corrupt good manners” and thriller involving multinationals grows intense theological and ethical collisions.

– In your story together Italy, Poland and Russia. And for you personally, they are united by something?

– for me – first of all the stories we tell. But in fact we are united by belonging to the Judeo-Christian civilization. In each of these countries, the Christian tradition has found its refraction. The film is shot when the hero comes to Moscow and talk with monks priest – and he tells him that he did not chose the path hermit, and the way he chose it. Angelo can not accept the fact that his beloved she heard a voice – and also went through that chose her.

– gets the feeling that your film is about the crisis of identity – ethnic, religious, gender . The hero is forced to leave his homeland, and then falls into the corporation, where he was talking like a servant, and humiliates him head of the Polish branch of the company, a pretty girl is like a man.

– You know, national identity not in Europe for many years. Alexander I even called himself the King of the Orthodox, and only after the War of 1812 began to call himself Emperor of Russia. Keep it for a long time … the unity of the Christian peoples, opposed to Muslim and Buddhist-Hindu world. However, since the Enlightenment have this tendency – to take all the best from Christianity that it is (the idea of ​​social justice, human rights), but reject everything else; take ethics, rejecting faith. I like this approach seems awfully false: must be transcendent, higher values ​​that underpin and human rights, and social justice, and even love for one’s neighbor. Now secular ethics pretends to be universal …

– So you think that the complete immorality in behavior of top managers corporations dictated by the fact that people live in a secular, non-religious ethics?

– They live outside of ethics in general. And in the film, we show that this is the second generation of people without ethics: for example, the mother head of the Polish branch of the corporation under Stalin was a prosecutor, signed the death sentences and, as is now recognized, trusted leaders, rather than ideals. You know, it’s like in families with divorced parents the child grows up, not having before our eyes the example of love, an example of the struggle for love. So here the heroine simply did not have before the eyes of the experience of moral behavior and because she is doing God knows what. How can there be morality in such a situation? Through repentance, regret over his actions. Repentance, through which passed the Germans, but did not pass some other countries, such as Russia. You know, because repentance – this is not the place or violence. It’s just naming evil by name, recognition of evil evil.

– You have a focal point of the film becomes just evil corporation, and the film anticorporate powerful message. It is known that your movie is coming out with the support of a large Russian state. You do not see a contradiction here?

– It is still a joint production of the three countries. In fact, the Russian company entered the project when one of the producers, Andrey Razumovsky, died a few days before shooting began. Your corporation came to the rescue. I understand your question, but for myself, I decided that I will not take on more responsibility than I do on my modest role should be. I do not know of anything that would compromise these people, and I will not play the prosecutor and try to discover what they say about them; Let regarding this company has my personal presumption of innocence.

– If it is short, can we say that your film is about the decline or collapse of Europe?

– Well, we can say that this is my (very allegorical, though) diary of observations of this process. Remember, the heroine says: “We aim to progress and a waiver of any restrictions, including decency?” We are now in a phase where there is a desire to demolish everything that came before it, and no one has any desire to talk about that is offered in return.