Rife with tension, Saint Vassily is an absorbing short thriller from writer and director Masha Egieva. An excellent film that forces us to look morally within ourselves while highlighting the powerlessness we face those more powerful than us.

In 1982, in the USSR, Vassily, an ambitious student, prepares for his forthcoming ordination as a priest, encouraged by the warm-hearted archbishop of the Academy. But all is not well as suddenly, Vassily’s roommate Roma has not only been skipping classes but has now disappeared. As worrisome rumours around the disappearance spread across the all-male Academy, Vassily is approached by a KGB agent who is investigating Roma’s sexuality, putting Vassily in a compromised position.

Masha Egieva knocks it out of the park with her second short film, Saint Vassily, which locks you in with its expert use of tension as we see a student priest get caught up in a world he never thought he would have to encounter. You are thoroughly enthralled as we see Vassily try to navigate through his situation while still trying to be what he has been taught, a good priest. This moral quandary pulls you all the way in as we try to work out how someone can break away from such an authoritarian environment.

By showing us how in sync the KGB and the upper levels of the church were at this time, we see how cornered Vassily is regarding his decision. We can see that he doesn’t really have a choice in the matter. Still, the fact that he has to be pressured from all sides for such a thing is shocking, but it is an all too expected indictment of the institutional stranglehold that such organisations have on any of us. When we get to that heart-sinking scene at the end of Saint Vassily, you are devasted. All of the hopes that Vassily had for his life’s mission are now compromised; he is stuck, and worst of all, he knows there is no way out. Otherwise, he may end up like many others did in the USSR in the 80s.

Anchoring Saint Vassily is the outstanding Billy Gunnion. He plays Vassily as a man who is getting increasingly lost and disenfranchised with each interaction with someone higher up than himself. You pity him greatly and relate incredibly to his situation. This isn’t what he signed up for, and not only does he not know how to escape it, he isn’t prepared for the consequences of whatever action he decides. Vassily is a character who has dreams of being a priest; his family all the way in Siberia dreams this dream for him and is proud of his ambition to go into the faith, which eventually only adds to the guilt that he battles when deciding on what to do. It’s a subtle but effective performance, with Gunnion pulling all of the right emotional strings as an actor to have us feel for him.

There is a nuanced connection between what we see in Saint Vassily and what has been occurring in Ukraine since (and, in truth, before) the current Russian invasion. There are probably good people who have or are being pressured to do things against their usual moral judgement, but when cornered in such a way, sometimes the only option is the one least painful to yourself.

What we have here is a compelling short film that asks the age-old question: When it comes down to your morals and push really comes to shove, do you think they can be compromised? For many of us, this is an answer we believe deep down in our souls. But how much pressure is too much?  The film serves as a stark reminder that even the most morally upright individuals can be coerced into compromising their values when faced with extreme pressure. If we were really in Vassily’s shoes, would we baulk from our dream, or would we take that compromise regardless of what came with it?

★★★★

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