Andrey Rublyov (1969) Movie Script
MOSFILM
Creative Association
of Writers and Cinematographers
ANDREI RUBLYOV
Screenplay by
Andrei MIKHALKOV-KONCHALOVSKY
Andrei TARKOVSKY
Directed by
Andrei TARKOVSKY
Director of Photography
Vadim YUSOV
Production Designer
Ye. CHERNYAYEV
with participation of
I. NOVODERYOZHKIN, S. VORONKOV
Music by
Vyacheslav OVCHINNIKOV
Sound by
Inna ZELENTSOVA
Tatiana KAMENEVA
Andrei Rublyov
Anatoly SOLONITSYN
Kirill
Ivan LAPIKOV
Daniil Chorny
Nikolai GRINKO
Theophanes the Greek
Nikolai SERGEYEV
God's Fool - Irma RAUSCH
Boriska - Nikolai BURLYAEV
Grand Prince, Little Prince
Yuri NAZAROV
Yu. NIKULIN, R. BYKOV
N. GRABBE, M. KONONOV
S. KRYLOV
B. BEISHENALIYEV, B. MATYSIK
A. OBUKHOV, Volodya TITOV
ANDREI RUBLYOV
Part One
Arkhip, give me the belt.
There you go.
Bring it up!
Oh God, I pray we make it.
Hurry up, untie it!
- Arkhip! Hold on a minute!
- Hurry, Yefim!
I'm here... here...
Wait...
Cut the rope, uncle!
Stick the brand into his mug!
I'm flying!
Yefim! What are you doing?
I'm flying!
Arkhip, I'm flying!
Hey, you! Catch me!
Oh, my God! What is it?!
Arkhipushka!!
BUFFOON
Moscow is full of painters
even without us.
Don't worry, we'll find some job.
Sure. But it's still annoying that...
Yes. Take this birch-tree. Every day
you walked by, without noticing it.
But when you know
that you won't see it again...
Look at it, it's so beautiful!
- Sure thing, ten years.
- Nine.
- It's 9 for you, for me it's 10.
- No. For me it's 7, for you, 9.
Rain! Let's take cover here!
Come on! It's no big deal.
There went a buffoon breed,
They indulged in honey and mead.
They met a high-ranked boyar,
They met a one-eyed Tartar.
They amused him all along,
They honored him with a song.
Our boyar is a lucky devil,
His is a house of plentiful level.
His wife has a gorgeous body,
She may show it,
but not to everybody.
Good woman, open the door,
Your master is coming.
And the boyar, what a spunk!
Tried to make them funk.
All of you, buffoons,
Are drunks and thieves,
You're flogged and will be
's long as anybody breathes.
You vagabonding slime,
You'll die in your grime.
Soon all of your make
Will be burnt on the stake.
Rap! And he was grabbed
Somewhere between
his knee and his spleen.
The boyar used to have a beard.
Promptly, with a grin,
They shaved him clean.
And missing one's beard is wrong,
Because even women have beards
Where they belong.
The boyar whimpers and howls,
Hopping like a flea on the balls.
Even a goat has a beard.
I better go home to my endeared.
So he knocked on his window. Oh?
His wife would not recognize him, no.
She saw a face, bald and bare,
And failed to grab him by his hair.
She socked it to him with a pan. Bang!
So that he behaved, and not raved.
Shame and disgrace!
Better put pants on your face.
Look! Isn't it weird?
A boyar without his beard!
The boyar took to running and roaming,
After him the geese were swarming.
He ran with no luck,
Lame like a duck.
A priest on the road
Took him for a broad.
The priest, a horny stag,
Him to the bushes he dragged.
If you strip him of his pants
And look at his both ends,
There's no difference!
Which one is my mazard?
It's raining outside.
Can we wait here?
Come on in.
Want some mead?
You're dripping wet.
- Thank you. We don't drink.
- Nor of women we ever think.
A priest is God's doing,
a buffoon is the devil's.
What if my old woman goes
to the bushes, too?
Yours will be the first to go there.
Yours will be the first to go, anyway.
Come here!
- Where have you been?
- Just took a little walk.
Shall we go?
Hey, Danila!
The rain's over. Let's go.
Christ be with you, good woman.
THEOPHANES THE GREEK
Have mercy!
I'm innocent!
Maybe he IS innocent?
They've slandered me, vipers!
Anyone here?
- Did you come to have a look?
- Yes, to have a look.
Go ahead, look.
Before we put drying oil on.
So you're the Greek, Theophanes?
Yes. What are you looking at me for?
Look over there.
Where are you from?
From the Andronnikov Monastery.
Then you must be Andrei Rublyov.
No.
I hear everybody praising Rublyov
at the top of their voices.
Well, he's a good master.
But he'll never be able to do this.
It's amazing, with the colors being
so quiet.
Oh, God!
It's just...
Why did you stop praising?
Speak out.
I can't.
I can't even put it in words.
There's a great truth
in Konstantin Kostechensky's saying:
"You'll penetrate the crux of every
thing
if you describe it truthfully."
And Andrei...
Well, I'm ready to say it to his face.
He's like brother to me.
They praise him, that's right.
He puts the paint in a thin layer,
very delicately, very skillfully.
But something is missing...
Fear is missing, and faith!
The faith that comes from the bottom
of one's heart.
And simplicity.
Remember what Epiphanius said
about Sergius's virtue:
"Simplicity without flourish".
That's what it is.
It's holy.
Simplicity without flourish.
You couldn't put it better.
I see you're clever!
But what good is there in it?
Maybe it's better, in the darkness
of your ignorance,
to follow your heart's calling?
Too much wisdom
brings much sorrow.
He that increaseth knowledge
increaseth sorrow.
Proshka! Where's the drying oil?
Whose ears I'll have to box?
Where have they all gone?
They say you finish your paintings
very quickly.
That's the only way I can paint.
I get bored very soon.
Once I puttered over it for a whole
week and finally had to give it up!
And you threw it away?
Why?
Used it to press sauerkraut.
I'm fed up with it up to here!
I've got apprentices galore,
and not one of them is any good.
They can't even read manuscripts.
Listen, will you be my assistant?
Stop joking. Don't laugh at me.
I'm not joking.
I have no one to help me decorate
the Annunciation Cathedral in Moscow.
The scaffolding's been already
erected there. Do you understand?
I understand, but I think I'm not up
to the job.
I'll explain everything to you. Have
you ever painted on raw gesso ground?
Sure, with brains like yours!
Even these fools of mine
can work the brush.
I said no.
Let's not talk about it any more.
Well, as you wish...
But don't regret it later.
I don't forget easily!
I may regret,
but you're doing a wrong thing.
A poor monk came to you,
and you liked talking with him
about books.
So you decided
to do him a great favor.
As a matter of fact, I haven't
touched a book for three years.
And I don't want to.
My path is different now.
- I'm going to die soon.
- Come on, don't say that.
Yes, I'm going to die. The other day,
I saw an angel in my dream.
"Come with me," he says.
And I answer: "I'm going to die soon
anyway, without your help."
Won't you change your mind?
All right. But on one condition.
What do you want? Money?
We'll split it in half. Is it a deal?
No. I'll be working for free.
But only if you yourself come for me
to the monastery
and in front of the whole community
and our bishop
ask me to come and help you.
With all our brethren present,
and Andrei Rublyov, too.
Then I'll be like your slave,
I'll serve you like a dog
until I die.
- And what is your name?
- Kirill.
The Orthodox people!
Truth-seekers and Christians!
For how long are you going to torture
the villain?
Will there be an end to it?
You're all great sinners yourselves,
but you take it upon you to judge!
Don't you have any fear of God?
The Prince commands you
to come to Moscow.
To decorate the Annunciation Cathedral,
together with Theophanes the Greek.
Is he really Andrei Rublyov?
That's true. He is Andrei Rublyov.
And I'm Kirill.
Theophanes the Greek tells you
to come to Moscow.
He wants to see you.
I thank Theophanes, too.
Tell him...
that... well... I'll come.
My head is splitting!
Bring it here.
You may take with you
whatever assistants you want.
Tomorrow you'll have to be in Moscow.
Is there a smithy nearby?
I'm afraid I'll fall down again.
There's a chapel outside the gates.
Next will be the smithy.
Farewell, God's people!
We could go today, Danila.
What do you think?
Let's get our things and set out.
Before Theophanes may change his mind.
- I'm not going.
- What do you mean?
- What am I to do without you?
- Do as you like.
I thought we'd go together.
Why were you thinking for me?
I was not invited.
I can't go without you.
You can!
You said 'yes' without asking me.
You were too quick to agree.
Theophanes had only to beckon.
Never mind, though.
You're not the first
and you won't be the last.
I've got a lot of work here
even without you.
Very well, then!
Foma! Alexei! Come on!
Pyotr! Get ready!
You're going with me.
Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth;
and let thy heart cheer thee
in the days of thy youth.
And walk in the ways of thine heart,
and in the sight of thine eyes.
But know though, that for all these
things
God will bring thee into judgement.
Remember now thy Creator
in the days of thy youth,
while the evil days come not,
nor the years draw nigh,
when thou shalt say,
I have no pleasure in them.
Or ever the silver cord
be loosed,
or the golden bowl be broken,
or the pitcher be broken
at the fountain,
or the wheel be broken
at the cistern.
Then shall the dust return
to the earth as it was:
and the spirit shall return unto God
who gave it.
Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher;
All is vanity.
Kirill!
Have you seen Father Nikodim?
Where could he go so early
in the morning?
He took my mittens
and vanished into thin air.
I have to sort out firewood,
and the logs are ice-cold.
Why do you keep the torch on?
It's morning already.
Did you feed my dog?
You didn't ask me to, did you?
What's the matter?
Go...
Have you forgotten something?
I came to say goodbye.
You already did.
I came to say goodbye, but...
I was feeling pretty bad as it was.
And to make it worse, the devil has
brought about this enmity between us.
I can't leave like that.
I need to confess.
Will you hear it out?
I won't be able to do anything,
Danila.
We've lived in the same cell
for years.
I have nobody but you.
I see the world with your eyes.
I listen with your ears.
With your heart...
I'm happy for you,
you silly man.
You can't imagine how glad I am.
Go to Moscow, paint,
and I'll be proud of you.
The devil tripped me up yesterday
also.
Forgive me, too.
I'll be back, Danila.
Where are you going?
What about the vespers?
You'll serve it without me,
and I'll do without you.
What's the matter with you, Kirill?
I'm tired of it. Tired of lying!
I'm going in the world.
Why did we leave the Trinity?
Why don't you say it?
Because our brothers put their
interests above faith.
And here again? We thought we'd
be serving God by our faith and work,
and what have we got?
Our monastery looks like
a market place.
You, God's servant, how much did you
pay to be ordained? Twenty souls?
And you kept following the prior,
bargaining with him.
For two or, luckily,
for one water meadow,
you wanted to win eternal bliss
for yourself.
You all know it,
but you won't say anything!
You're pretending
you don't notice anything!
I might have kept silent, too,
and put up with all this abomination,
if I had any talent,
or at least some ability
to paint icons.
But God didn't give me talent,
and thank God!
I'm happy that I got no talent,
for because of that I'm honest
and pure before God!
And one more thing, brethren...
What can you tell us
that we don't know?
But do you know
what happens to ones like you?
I'm just...
Get out of here,
you viper's breed!
You'll thrive in the world!
Blasphemer!
You see...
Listen, Kirill...
It is written:
And Jesus went into the temple of God
and cast out all them that sold and
bought in the temple, and overthrew
the tables of the moneychangers
and the seats of them that sold doves.
And said unto them:
My house shall be called
the house of prayer,
but ye have made it
a den of thieves.
THE ANDREI PASSION
I washed Danila's brushes for 3 years
before he trusted me with an icon.
And not to correct it,
but just to clean it.
Do you trust me?
But you're lying all the time!
The other night you came back
with your cassock all glued together.
- Where had you been?
- At the apiary.
And you said you went to
the Andronnikov monastery.
Look at yourself!
Apply some damp dirt to it,
or you'll be bloated like a hog.
It must be too late already.
It won't help.
You're making up things on and on.
I even thought
you might have some disease.
What disease?
There must be such a disease
when a man can't stop lying.
Look, Foma! Look, I say!
- Look where?
- Never mind, blockhead.
I can't understand why I took you
to be my assistant.
You say one thing one day and another
the next. Didn't you tell Theophanes:
"This boy never misses a thing
and he likes the azure"?
You were a different person then.
You tried hard, you never lied.
You know what Theophanes said
about your azure?
"What good is in it, in the azure?"
And you love to eat.
It beats me how you can paint
after that?
Can you think of anything else
when your belly growls?
All you can hear is that growling.
You're a lucky man, Foma.
Everything's plain and simple for you.
Only through a prayer
our soul can discern what's invisible.
Look! What's that?
So, you decided to leave the apostles
on the left?
Foma, have you removed the glue
from the fire?
Have you removed the glue?
He likes the azure!
He should be beaten the crap out of
every Saturday!
Where did you see all this,
when everybody only think
of saving their asses?
Even those women of Moscow gave their
hair to the Tartars as a ransom.
They preferred to go bald
rather than be tortured.
What has unselfishness to do with it?
It's not right to say that.
It has always been that women
in Russia were oppressed and unhappy.
Anyway, it's not what I mean...
All right, tell me in all honesty,
are our people ignorant or not?
I can't hear you!
Yes, ignorant!
But who's to blame for that?
Their stupidity is to blame!
Have you never sinned
because you're ignorant?
Yes, and I have, too. O God, forgive,
reconcile and curb our passions!
The Day of Judgement is coming.
We'll all burn like candles.
Mind my word,
it will be hell!
People will lump the blame
for their sins on one another,
will be justifying themselves
before the Almighty.
I don't understand how you can paint,
having thoughts like that.
You even accept praise.
I'd have taken vows of schema long ago
and settled down in a cave for good.
I serve God, not people.
Today they praise, tomorrow they'll
abuse what they praised only yesterday,
and after that they'll forget both
you and me. They'll forget everything!
All is vanity! All is useless!
The human race had already
perpetrated all stupidities and wrongs,
and now it's just repeating them.
Everything falls back into place
again, and goes round and round...
If Jesus came back to Earth again,
He would be once more crucified!
If you remember only evil,
you can never be happy
before God.
What?
Maybe some things should be
forgotten, but not every thing.
I don't know how to say it...
If you don't know, then be silent!
Listen to me!
You think that good can be done
only single-handedly?
Good!
Have you forgotten the New Testament?
Jesus gathered people in the temples,
too. He taught them.
And then they gathered together
in order to execute Him.
"Crucify him!" they shouted.
And His disciples? Judas
betrayed Him, Peter renounced Him.
They all abandoned Him!
And they were the best!
But they repented!
That was much later, don't you
understand? When it was too late.
It's true, people do evil, too.
And it's very sad.
Judas had sold Christ out.
But do you remember who bought Him?
The people.
The Pharisees and their scribes.
They couldn't find any witness,
however hard they might have tried.
Who would slander Him, the innocent?
And the Pharisees were great
deceivers, literate and cunning.
They even learned to read and write
in order to gain power,
taking advantage of His ignorance.
People ought to be reminded more
often that they're human beings,
that all Russians
are of one blood and of one land!
Evil can be found anywhere.
There will always be those ready
to sell you for 30 pieces of silver.
And the Russian man
gets more and more misfortunes.
The Tartars raid him thrice a season,
then comes a famine or a plague.
But he keeps working and working,
bearing his cross with humility.
Never despairing, but enduring it
silently.
And only praying to God
to give him enough strength to endure.
Can the Almighty not forgive
such men their ignorance?
You know it yourself
that whenever something goes wrong,
or you're exhausted and despairing,
and suddenly...
you meet some human eyes
and it works
as if you took a Communion, and
the weight is lifted from your heart.
Isn't it so?
You were talking about Jesus.
Perhaps He was born and crucified
for only one reason:
to reconcile God with man.
Jesus comes from God,
it means He's Almighty.
And His dying on the cross
must have been preordained.
His crucifixion and death
were God's doing.
And it was supposed to provoke hatred
not of those who crucified Him,
but of those who loved Him, if they
had been with Him at that moment.
For they loved Him as a man.
But He abandoned them
of His own free will,
having shown injustice,
or even cruelty.
Do you realize what you're saying?
For these words, you'll be packed off
to the North to fix up icons.
Am I not right?
You always say
what you think yourself.
With me, it's different.
I'm a worldly man, a free man.
FEAS
Sergey, come here!
Coming!
Start the fire in the meantime!
Foma, let's go fetch some firewood.
Peter have seen
neither the Assumption,
nor the Dmitrievsky Cathedral.
Never mind. After he has roamed
the woods,
sweeping his brush,
he'll see what's right.
We won't be able to finish painting
the cathedral before the cold spell.
It will be June soon.
What is it?
Wait. Do you hear it?
- A nightingale.
- Nothing else?
Can you see it?
- What is it?
- Let's go! Come on!
Doing witchery.
Andrei! Where are you going?
- Come here...
- Wait...
I saw you, black vermin, lurking
there.
You, God's servants, need to know
everything.
Let me go!
We'll let you go first thing
in the morning.
With a stone on your neck, for you
to swim faster to your destination.
A fire will fall down from heavens
and will scorch you all!
The Day of Judgement will come
at last!
We'll fix you
right to this crosspiece.
Just like Jesus Christ.
What are you doing, men?
You can't do it to me, men!
Don't you understand? It's a sin!
At least tie me with my feet up.
Please, brothers!
Let him hang.
Let him spend the night like that,
unless he ascends.
He will be here alright.
Why did you ask to hang you
head down?
You'd have been even worse off.
And why did you curse us?
Threatening us with a fire?
Because it's a sin to run about naked
and do things like that.
This is the night
when everyone should love.
Is loving a sin?
You call it love tying a man up
like that?
It's just in case you decided
to bring guards or monks here.
To convert us to your faith
by force.
You think it's easy to live in fear,
like we do?
You fear because
you either don't love at all,
or love shamelessly, bestially,
not with your heart.
Love should be brotherly.
Does it make any difference?
It's still love.
Go on, untie me.
Where've you been?
Where were you?
The woods're all but impassable here.
I've got all scratched up.
But the locals even like it,
they got used to it.
People do everything out of habit.
I guess, old people don't have
to think about anything.
Each day for them rolls by itself.
Or maybe, it's even very comforting
for them:
it drags on and on from morn till
night, with no end.
Just look at yourself!
All scratched and black and blue.
Aren't you ashamed to appear like
that before your pupils?
- Couldn't you come back sooner?
- I couldn't.
Well, it's your sin,
your conscience, and your prayers.
Catch her! Grab the woman!
- Catch him!
- Grab her!
Run, Martha!
What's the matter with you? The three
of you can't manage one filthy man?
Why are they doing it? Why?
Because they won't believe in one God.
Damn pagans!
Don't look, Sergey!
You shouldn't look.
We'll go on living as we used to!
Go on, and no tricks.
Help me, Fyodor!
What's the matter with you, men?
Can't you subdue a woman?
Where are you going?
She will drown you in a jiffy!
Martha! Swim faster!
THE LAST JUDGEMEN
- Foma!
- What?
May I go and take a swim?
- Forget it!
- I'm too hot!
It's not hot.
Stop lying.
Let him go and take a swim.
All he can do is sit in the water.
He's just imagining it's hot.
It's I who said first it's hot,
not Sergey.
Enough! That's it!
You want to swim, go and swim!
Go on!
Why are you sitting? Go!
- Where's Andrei?
- He's out.
Something has happened...
Such a thing...
Well...
I dropped in at our bishop's,
and there was such a commotion!
The bishop, all livid,
was running about in his underwear.
"I can't stand it any longer,"
he says. "That's it!"
He was speaking about you.
"It's been two months since
everything was ready for their work,
and they're not doing anything,
just loitering about.
They'd demanded an exorbitant price,
and they haven't done a thing yet!"
- Did you really ask a lot of money?
- Oh, come on!
"It makes no difference to me,"
he says.
"Whether it is Daniil Chorny or
Andrei Rublyov! I don't care!"
"What's going on?" he says.
And he made a face like that.
"What is it?" he says. "What do I
care if it's Rublyov? If it's Andrei?"
"I need the cathedral to be painted
by the fall, and that's it!" he says.
He sent a messenger to the Grand
Prince with a complaint.
Sent a messenger to the Grand.
You mind that.
What? You really... haven't
started yet?
You know...
you better start... or else...
- Where's Andrei?
- He's gone somewhere again.
Can't you do it without him?
Start without him.
What's so funny?
There're so many of you.
If he hasn't decided yet,
there are enough of you!
Two heads are better that one...
Ah, Andrei, Andrei!
You see, a messenger already went
to complain to the Prince.
Just say 'yes' or 'no'?
Yes or no.
Hadn't we decided all in Moscow?
We'd agreed on everything
up to the last detail.
The Grand Prince himself
had approved it.
What is still unclear to you then?
What have we been shouting ourselves
hoarse about for two months?
Maybe I'm too old,
maybe I'm out of my mind?
"The Last Judgement".
Just go ahead and paint it.
Or maybe we better turn down
this work?
Really, let's turn it down.
And how am I going to look people
in the eyes? I'll burn with shame.
We're losing precious time!
The weather is warm and dry.
We could've already finished the domed
ceiling. And the pillars, too.
And we could've made them
so beautiful and vivid!
We could depict the sinners
boiling in tar in such a way that...
it would make one's flesh creep.
I know how to paint the devil, with
smoke from his nose and eyes like...
Smoke is not the point!
- What is the point then?
- I don't know!
- Why won't you look me in the eye?
- I can't!
I can't paint this.
It's against me. Can't you understand?
I don't want to scare people.
Try to understand, Danila.
Come to your senses! It's the Last
Judgement, that's what it is!
It's not my invention.
No, I can't!
Why didn't you say it in Moscow?
We shouldn't have taken it up
in the first place.
It's so impure!
That's how I am! You seem to have
failed to cultivate purity in me.
I'm leaving you.
This kind of work is not for me.
Thank you for everything,
for the clips on my nose.
You've taught me something, that's
enough. I'm going to work.
They invited me to decorate a chapel
in Pafnutiev.
It's not a big deal,
but at least it's something.
I'm going to paint
"The Last Judgement".
Anyone going with me?
All right, stay.
But be sure not to regret it later!
Though I speak with the tongues
of men and of angels,
but have not love,
I have become sounding brass.
And though I have the gift of prophesy,
and understand... all knowledge,
and though I have all faith,
so that I could remove mountains,
but have not love, I am nothing.
And though I bestow all my goods... and
though I give my body to be burned,
but have not love,
it profits me nothing!
Love suffers long,
and is kind;
love envies not;
love does not parade itself,
is not puffed up,
dos not behave itself unseemly,
seeks not her own, is not easily
provoked, thinks no evil;
does not rejoice in iniquity,
but rejoices in the truth;
bears all things, believes all things,
hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never fails...
But whether there be prophesies,
they shall fail;
whether there be tongues, they'll cease;
...knowledge, it shall vanish away.
For we know in part...
Well, Princess, is it any good?
To splash milk around is sinful.
It's naughty.
Why is it sinful?
Just because.
Go on, wipe me up.
It'll dry up by itself.
Let's go with me for a walk
by the river.
Let go of me, Stepan! Let go,
or I'll send you to the stable!
What do you think? Do you like it?
For me, it couldn't be better.
It's so light and beautiful.
Light...
Come on, take her away from here.
The nurses have spoiled her rotten.
Don't worry, no one could've built
you a mansion like we have.
Who could decorate it so beautifully?
And the carving?
Only Mityai can do it.
He carves without marking.
Just like a bird singing.
Look at it!
Maybe it's like a bird, but...
For me it's all right to sleep in
a barn, but you're a Grand Prince.
What? Don't you like it?
Everything has to be repainted.
The walls and the ceiling.
To make it brighter and more vivid.
I've been in this business forty
years!
What matters is not your skill,
but to be able to glorify the prince.
We're not going to redo anything.
It's time for us to leave.
We've been hired for another job.
They expect us in Zvenigorod.
Where?
At your brother's. The stone's
already been brought up there.
Very good stone.
Whiter than this one.
We agreed on it when your brother
was here at Easter time.
"Do whatever you like," he said.
"I won't spare any money.
Just make me the best mansion."
Well, if it's Zvenigorod,
let it be Zvenigorod!
I looked at the prince,
he just stood still.
When I told him about Zvenigorod?
He was just horror-stricken.
He's afraid that his brother
will go one up on him.
- And who carved this?
- I did.
Why didn't you fix it into the wall?
It didn't work.
- A fine beast.
- It crumbled all the way.
I'd warned the prince
not to scrimp on the stone.
He must be regretting it now
that he knows about Zvenigorod.
Come on, move!
Where's Stepan?
Where did Stepan ride to?
I guess he went to Zvenigorod.
All right then.
My hands are dirty.
We're going to build his younger
brother a mansion no worse that this.
- He's got a better stone?
- Yes, much better.
- Look! Stepan!
- What's he doing here?
Hold it, old man!
You, Goat!
Help him. Hide him in the bushes.
Where's my whip?
- Mikola!
- Mityai!
Anyone seen my whip?
Damn it!
I've lost my whip.
Hey, Goat!
Have you seen my whip?
Sergey, read from the Scriptures.
- What place?
- Whatever you like.
Now I praise you, brethren, that
you remember me in all things
and keep the ordinances
as I delivered them to you.
But I would have you know
that the head of every man is Christ
and the head of the woman is the man,
and the head of Christ is God.
Every man praying or prophesying,
having his head covered,
dishonoreth his head.
But every woman that prayeth or
prophesyeth with her head uncovered
dishonoreth her head,
for that is even all one
as if she were shaven.
For if the woman be not covered,
let her also be shorn.
But if it be a shame for a woman to
be shorn or shaven, let her be covered.
For a man indeed ought not
to cover his head,
since he is the image
and glory of God;
but the woman is the glory of the man.
For the man is not of the woman,
but the woman of the man.
Neither was the man created for
the woman, but the woman for the man.
For this cause ought the woman
to have power on her head,
because of the angels.
Nevertheless, neither is the man without
woman, neither the woman without man...
Go on.
For as the woman is of the man, even
so is the man also by the woman;
but all things of God.
Judge among yourselves.
Is it proper for a woman
praying to God uncovered?
Doth not even nature itself teach you
that if a man has long hair,
it is a shame onto him?
But if a woman has long hair,
it is a glory to her;
for her hair is given her...
Why did you stop? Go on!
...it is a glory to her.
For her hair is given her for...
Danila! Listen, Danila!
Feast! It's the feast, Danila!
And you were saying...
They're not sinners, are they?
How can she be a sinner,
even if she doesn't wear a kerchief?
Some sinner!
Leave him alone.
Let this servant of God repent.
ANDREI RUBLYOV
Part Two
RAID
They're coming! Prince!
The Tartars are coming!
Summon everybody!
Do you hear me, Kosoy?
Hey, Prince!
What have you got here?
Is that the ford?
The rains have flooded it.
Go further!
Follow us!
We already wanted to leave.
We expected you yesterday.
Small town on my way.
Wanted to go round it.
But couldn't help myself.
Sorry I'm late.
Never mind. Let's go!
Keep left, there's a shallow place.
You're not going to cheat me?
Why do you say such thing?
Vladimir is empty.
The Grand Prince is off
to Lithuania.
The town is over there,
behind that forest.
They say the Grand Prince has
a little son growing up,
and you're aspiring after his crown.
We'll see.
I can see you're longing for
the throne. I can understand it.
Where are you going?
I told you, keep left!
Hold it!
Keep up, Prince!
I see there's no love lost between
you and your brother.
That must be our fate.
When did you make up with him
the last time?
I didn't.
The metropolitan made us
take an oath before God
that we live in peace and harmony.
The Grand Prince is coming.
So my brother's here.
Vladimir is so beautiful!
Isn't it, Prince?
It's no small town.
Let's go!
Don't lag behind!
Vaska, you dog, I'll maim you!
Keep up with the prince!
Charge!
To the gates!
Tartars!
Run!
Run!
Hold him, Foma!
I'm going to...
What are you doing, brothers?
We're Russians, like you...
I'll teach you, Vladimir scum!
Catch him! Grab him!
You lamebrain!
Run around!
Are you deaf or what? Around!
Where are we?
Nobody here.
They all scattered.
Your bitch has grown up.
Not recognized me, she forgot.
My dear man, please,
let me go!
Let me go!
Well, Prince?
Don't you feel sorry about
the cathedral?
Oh, damn you! Thieves!
Bastards! Scoundrels!
Listen, Prince,
who is that woman lying down?
It's not a woman.
That's Mary, the Virgin.
It's the birth of Jesus Christ.
And who's in the box?
Christ, her son.
How can she be a virgin
if she has a son?
Well though, in this Russia of yours,
even stranger things happen.
Interesting!
It hurts!
Oh, my God, how it hurts!
I'm burning! It hurts!
Oh, woe upon us!
I don't know where the gold is.
It must have been stolen.
It must be your Tartars who stole it.
You are all thieves!
You'd better ask your own people.
Go ahead and ask them.
- Did he tell?
- Didn't tell the truth yet.
Wait, listen what I'm going to say...
Look how a Russian,
Orthodox,
innocent man is being tortured
by thieves.
Look, Judas, Tartar muzzle!
You liar! I'm Russian!
I recognized you.
You look like your brother.
You've betrayed Russia!
I did recognize you!
Oh, how it hurts!
I'm not telling you anything...
Mind my words,
never there will be
the Tartar's foot on Russian soil.
I swear to God,
never!
I'll kiss the cross...
Give the cross to an Orthodox man!
You'll get your cross.
If I've sinned,
the Lord will forgive me.
He is merciful, He will forgive!
O Lord, will You forgive me,
will You?
And you all will boil
in a pot of tar!
You will be gone,
and we'll build everything anew.
Let you be disemboweled
in hell's fire!
O Lord... What are you doing?
What for?
Vipers!
Theophanes! You're dead, aren't you?
I dreamt
that you were hanging
head down from the window,
looking up
and wagging your finger at me.
And I was lying
across a horse saddle,
with two horde men
twisting my head.
You were looking and knocking
on the window with your finger.
- And I was shouting to you...
- What were you shouting?
Listen, what's going on?
They murder, they rape,
they plunder churches
together with the Tartars.
And you were telling me...
Only I feel much worse now
than you.
You're dead, and I...
Yes, I'm dead, so what?
That's not what I mean! I've spent
half of my life being blind!
Half of my life, like that...
Day and night I worked for them,
for people...
But they're not people.
You were saying the truth then.
The truth.
It doesn't matter what I was saying.
You're wrong now,
I was wrong then.
Aren't we of the same faith?
Of the same land? Of the same blood?
One Tartar even laughed at us.
Like this.
He shouted: "You'll cut one another's
throat even without us!"
What a shame!
They murdered everybody.
And my Seryoga, too.
I found him on such a day...
She alone remained.
- I have to go.
- Wait...
Please, don't go away!
Do you feel ill at ease with me?
Are you bored? I won't say it again.
Let's sit down and talk.
I'm going to tell you...
I know everything.
I'll never paint again.
- Why?
- Nobody needs it.
Just because one iconostasis has been
burned?
Do you know how much of my work
has been burned?
In Pskov,
in Novgorod, in Galitch...
It's a great sin that you're taking
upon yourself.
I haven't told you the most important
thing.
I killed a man.
A Russian man.
When I saw him dragging her...
Look...
Just look at her!
It's because of our sins that
evil has taken a human guise.
Attempting to kill evil,
you make an attempt on human life.
God will forgive you,
but you must not forgive yourself.
And go on living
between His forgiveness
and your own torment.
As for your sin... Remember
what's written in your Scriptures?
"Learn to do well;
Seek judgement;
Relieve the oppressed;
Defend the fatherless.
Come now, and let us reason together,
Says the Lord,
Though your sins be
as scarlet,
They shall be as white as snow..."
See, I haven't forgotten it,
I still remember!
Maybe, you'll feel better, too.
I know, God is merciful, He will
forgive.
I'll take a vow of silence before God,
and I won't say a word.
I have nothing to talk with people
about any more.
Isn't it the right thing to do?
I have no right to give you
any advice. I can't.
Haven't you got in Paradise?
Oh, God...
Everything over there is not like
you here think it is.
Russia...
Dear Russia, she endures everything.
And will continue to endure.
For how long will it be going on?
I don't know.
Forever, I guess.
And yet all this is so beautiful!
It's snowing...
There's nothing more frightful
than snow falling in the temple.
Don't you think so?
SILENCE
The apples are all rotten.
I've been on this earth so many years,
yet I don't remember such a famine.
We're dying out little by little,
forgive us God.
Not a soul left in our neighborhood.
All the villages are empty.
Everyone from Khotkovo left
for somewhere.
The Semyonovka people ran away, too.
There's no one in Semyonovka,
I passed by it this morning.
In Vladimir, they have had no harvest
for three years.
And all the people ran off.
Those that stayed are hunting rats.
Why are you whispering?
I caught cold spending the night
in the lake.
How come?
The wolves got the better of me,
so I waded into the lake.
I only prayed to God
that they wouldn't jump in.
I stood like that until dawn.
When I got out, I felt all numb.
I can't recover for two weeks now.
- Are you from Vladimir?
- Yes, I used to live there.
There comes another man from Vladimir.
Not saying a word since he left
Vladimir.
He took a vow of silence.
He had sinned, now he's repenting.
He brought a God's fool with him
from Vladimir. She's dumb.
So they keep mum together.
He brought her here so that he could
feel his shame,
to have his sin
always before him.
That's holiness for you!
What about Andrei's artel?
It had broken up.
Some were killed by Tartars,
others went their own ways.
And Danila? Is he alive?
People say all kind of things.
Either he went to the North,
or he's dead.
Has he given up his craft altogether?
You're Kirill, aren't you?
Kirill? Is that you?
That Mephody again!
Now he's let the Tartars in here!
It's bad to eat dirty meat!
For God's sake, don't turn me out,
Father! There's no truth in the world!
I can't go on sinning every day
any more!
And one can't live otherwise
in the world!
Accept my repentance, Father!
And I'll be kissing your feet!
You were always good at talking.
No, you won't move me to pity.
If you only knew, Father,
how much hardship I've gone through,
how much evil I've endured,
then you would have forgiven me,
but I'll never forgive myself.
Your guilt is not before me,
your guilt is before God.
Stay!
And as a redemption for your sins,
you shall copy the Scripture 15 times.
You may take
the late Father Nikodim's cell.
Thank you, Lord!
Thank you, brethren!
How good it is!
Thank you, our Father!
Good Russian, eating horse meat!
Want to go with us to the Horde?
You'll be my wife.
I got seven wives,
but no Russian wife yet.
Every day
you'll be eating horse meat,
drinking koumiss,
wearing gold coins in your hair.
Lower your head!
With a Tartar husband,
a Russian wife can't go about dirty.
Let's go with us, girl!
Come on! Give me your hand!
Andrei!
Don't you recognize me?
Don't you worry. They'll give her
a ride and let her go.
They won't dare hurting a God's
fool. That's a great sin.
BELL
Is this Nikola the founder's house?
Yes, it is.
- Is he your father?
- Yes, my father.
- Call him.
- He's not here.
Where's he?
He's dead.
The plague has gotten them all:
My mother, sister and father, too.
And where's the house of Gavrila
the founder?
Gavrila is dead, too.
So is Kasyan the craftsman.
Ivashka's been taken away by Tartars,
only Fyodor remained.
Go to him,
but you'd better hurry.
He's lying in bed, whizzing,
with his eyes closed.
He might die any minute now.
I can't stand it any more!
Where are we to look now?
- We'd better go back home.
- Get up, I say!
Back home... Sprawling like that!
What have we come to?!
There's no one to cast a bell!
Take me along!
I'll cast you a bell!
Are you crazy?
Take me to the Prince.
I'll do a fine job!
You're not going to find anyone
anyway. They're all dead.
You won't find anyone better than me!
- Lay off!
- All right! So much worse for you!
I know the bell secret!
I know it, but I won't tell you!
My father knew the secret of bell
bronze.
Before he died, he passed it on to me.
No one else knows it!
Only I know! I!
My father told me the secret...
- Shall we take this servant of God?
- He's just talking rot.
Do you want the Grand
to skin us alive?
- He's lying about the secret!
- Then he will answer for it.
Come here!
Hop on!
- What about my hut?
- Sit on.
Well, you've talked him into it
after all?
Where are we going? What are we
looking for? We can dig over here.
Do we dig here?
We could, but it would be better
to dig closer to the belfry,
not to have to carry the weight
such a distance...
We can dig here, can't we?
Let's do it here.
Come on, mark it!
Let's dig together.
We're founders, not navvies.
Why should we putter in the earth?
You know what my father said
before he died?
"Founders must dig a foundry pit
themselves."
"I've come to understand it," he said,
"only in my old age."
He said that and died.
I don't know what Nikola said,
but I'm not going to dig.
If you need us, call us.
Well, have you found it?
What is there to find? There it is.
Is that it?
No, that's not the right clay.
- We always took it from here.
- And were making fools of yourselves!
- This clay's not good, is it?
- No good.
You see? Let's go.
We'll keep on looking
until we find it.
Listen, Stepan, maybe we shouldn't
do it?
Sure, we shouldn't. Look what clay
we've found,
how much work we've done before
we found a new place, and you...
That's not it. Don't you understand?
There you go again. August is almost
over, and we haven't found the clay!
I just pity you.
Don't! I've lived without your pity
for years!
Let's go, Boris dear!
I can't!
I know that's not the right clay!
- And which one is "right"?
- I know which.
I don't need such workers!
We'll do fine without you!
I don't need such workers!
Andreika!
Semyon!
I've found it!
Uncle Pyotr! I've found it!
The clay! Uncle Semyon!
The clay is here! Stepan!
Where are you all?
- Boris!
- What?
- Shall I dig it in?
- I'm coming!
Coming!
Where's Nikolai?
He went for the timber.
It should've been here already!
What am I going to reinforce it with?
- He left first thing in the morning.
- That Nikolai of yours is an idiot!
Why are you standing like that?
Go on, work!
- The merchants won't go for it.
- Why won't they go for it?
They asked the price thrice as big.
They say they give this rope cheap.
- Are we going to pay that price?
- Go ahead and pay!
The prince will kill you for that!
We're going to ruin him.
What do I care now!
Go away, old man, or you'll be hurt.
Don't start digging it in without me.
Boris!
Coming!
Well?
This mould won't hold,
we'll have to twine it all around.
It's time to coat it with clay,
and you haven't made the mould yet!
We need to reinforce it more,
but there're no more twigs.
Finish it up, we must start
baking the clay by the evening.
If the mould isn't reinforced,
it won't stand bronze, it'll crack.
What if we don't bake it
before snow?
I'll be flogged then, not you.
The mould won't hold in here.
Finish up the mould!
Do you hear me or not?
I'm not going to do it.
Suit yourself, but get out if here!
Andreika, finish it up.
He's not going to do it either.
- Are you going to do it?
- It won't hold!
We need to twine it more.
Are you going to obey me?
Who is in charge here?
We need one more layer.
- Fyodor!
- I'm here.
Flog him.
Not him, this one.
He refuses to work,
he wouldn't listen to my orders.
I'm going to show you
who is in charge here!
Your father didn't treat us like that.
So you remembered my father? Let him
be flogged in the name of my father!
Finish it up!
- Dig it in without me!
- We're waiting for you!
Dig it in without me!
Go and have some sleep.
What are you staring at?
Have you swallowed your tongue?
Or are you deaf?
What? Feel sorry for him?
Then go and console him.
That's what you monks are for.
Boris, wake up!
I began baking.
Why without me?
I told you to wake me up.
I know myself when to do it!
Pyotr, people from the prince are
here. They're asking for you.
That's what I call real hot!
Isn't it hot?
That will be enough for you.
Not enough silver.
Tell the prince not to be stingy.
The Grand Prince is never stingy.
I don't know,
but we need another half pood.
What difference does it make...
Who knows the secret of bell bronze,
you or me?
Tell the prince not to be stingy.
We need another half pood.
I'm going to shake a lot of silver
out of the prince.
And the bell won't ring!
I recognized him!
Beat him up!
You all, beat him!
Beat the monk!
Why are you attacking the man?
You took him for someone else.
Why attack him?
No, I'm not mistaken!
It's him, I know!
He used to be smooth and handsome...
Now he's all worn out, too.
I spent ten years in prison
because of him!
They've taken off half of my tongue!
Let go!
Let go of me!
I'll kill him!
I'll kill him.
He's innocent,
he never betrayed anyone!
I can swear on the cross!
Oh God, why do You send
this punishment?
Go on, strike me, but don't touch him!
Get up! Get up!
Get up, I say...
Come on, get up...
How heavy you are.
The prince's jester is dead.
They invited me to be his jester.
Bu what do I need the prince for?
I'd better be a joiner.
But I did recognize this one!
I did.
That's him who'd sold me out.
Come on, give me a drink.
You ain't seen nothing yet!
Remove it.
Take a sample!
Go to the third furnace!
Shall we put more firewood into the
third? You're going to cool it down!
Splash some water on the hose!
Why are you standing?
Go on, work! Add some more!
Move!
Some more for the second furnace?
Go ahead!
Come on, pump it!
More for the second!
- Where's Boris?
- He went to the casters.
The second and third furnaces are
ready!
The first will be ready soon.
Come, everyone is ready!
Open it!
Everything is ready.
Shall we begin?
Come on!
Pour it in! Come on!
It's flowing! Boriska! It's flowing!
Look, it's flowing!
O Lord! Help us! Let it work!
Tomorrow is going to be the day!
I wish we could have some sleep...
- Boris, are you coming?
- I'm coming...
Coming...
Listen, Andrei...
I kept thinking about it,
and I've decided to tell you.
I envied you, you know it yourself.
Envy was eating me up so much
that it had poisoned my guts.
I couldn't bear it anymore, so I left.
God is my witness, because of you.
But when I learned that you
had given up painting,
I felt so much better,
and then forgot about it.
I just want to finish copying
the Scriptures before I die.
Our Father Superior is so strict,
he's imposed a very severe penance.
I'm afraid I won't make it now.
Oh, why am I confessing to you?
I don't have to.
You're a great sinner yourself.
You've sinned more than I.
What am I? Just a worthless worm.
What can be expected of me?
And you?
For what holy deeds has God
given you your talent?
What are your deserts?
Oh God, that's not the point...
I know that Nikon has already sent
three messengers to you,
trying to talk you into decorating
the Trinity.
And you wouldn't even speak to them.
I must admit
that it provoked a feeling of joy
in my base soul,
at the very bottom of it.
But now that my life's coming
to an end,
my soul cries for eternal rest.
Nikon doesn't care a thing about your
life. He's calling you,
because he wants to strengthen and
glorify his power with your talent.
Well, let God be his judge.
Listen to me.
Go to the Trinity and paint, paint!
It's a great sin,
to reject a God-given gift.
If Theophanes were alive,
he would have said so, too.
Look at me,
look at the one who has no talent!
Why do you think I've come back?
Just to have something to eat
and to live out my days in peace.
I'm going to die soon,
and nothing will be left after me.
You're not going to live
forever, too.
Do you want to take your talent
with you into your grave?
Why don't you say something?
Say one word, at least!
As for that buffoon... that was me...
Curse me at least,
but don't keep silent, Andrei!
- It may break in this place.
- Bite your tongue.
Ease the end out.
We shouldn't have tied it in a knot,
it should've been fastened with metal.
I told Boris...
Well?
Yes, sure...
Come then.
Everyone, leave!
- How is it with you?
- All set!
Everyone go up, quick!
- All ready?
- Yes!
Move forward!
Separate the ropes!
Don't get the ends tangled!
Come on, give a signal!
Wave your hand.
Go!
- Look, who's that?
- The Grand Prince.
- And who are those with him?
- Foreigners.
That's some day, Holy Mother!
Damn it, the Grand Prince is coming,
and a foreign ambassador with him.
Are we going to make it?
You'd better do, damn you!
This bell is being blessed
and consecrated
by besprinkling on it of this holy
water.
In the name of the Father, the Son
and the Holy Ghost. Amen.
This bell is being blessed
and consecrated
by besprinkling on it of this holy
water.
In the name of the Father, the Son
and the Holy Ghost. Amen.
This bell is being blessed
and consecrated
by besprinkling on it of this holy
water.
In the name of the Father, the Son
and the Holy Ghost. Amen.
See what kind I put in charge here?
Where are you going? Go there...
Come on, come on, blockhead!
Shall I give you a hand
or you'll swing it yourself?
Don't.
My father, the old beast,
would not pass to me the secret.
He died, never telling me the secret.
Took it to his grave, old tightwad.
You see, everything worked out right.
Beautiful! Stop it.
We'll go together now.
You'll be casting bells,
and I'll be painting icons.
We'll go to the Trinity,
you and me.
You've created such a feast,
such a joy for people.
Why are crying?
There... there...
Stop crying...
There... there... enough...
Calm down.
Enough, hush, hush...
The End
Creative Association
of Writers and Cinematographers
ANDREI RUBLYOV
Screenplay by
Andrei MIKHALKOV-KONCHALOVSKY
Andrei TARKOVSKY
Directed by
Andrei TARKOVSKY
Director of Photography
Vadim YUSOV
Production Designer
Ye. CHERNYAYEV
with participation of
I. NOVODERYOZHKIN, S. VORONKOV
Music by
Vyacheslav OVCHINNIKOV
Sound by
Inna ZELENTSOVA
Tatiana KAMENEVA
Andrei Rublyov
Anatoly SOLONITSYN
Kirill
Ivan LAPIKOV
Daniil Chorny
Nikolai GRINKO
Theophanes the Greek
Nikolai SERGEYEV
God's Fool - Irma RAUSCH
Boriska - Nikolai BURLYAEV
Grand Prince, Little Prince
Yuri NAZAROV
Yu. NIKULIN, R. BYKOV
N. GRABBE, M. KONONOV
S. KRYLOV
B. BEISHENALIYEV, B. MATYSIK
A. OBUKHOV, Volodya TITOV
ANDREI RUBLYOV
Part One
Arkhip, give me the belt.
There you go.
Bring it up!
Oh God, I pray we make it.
Hurry up, untie it!
- Arkhip! Hold on a minute!
- Hurry, Yefim!
I'm here... here...
Wait...
Cut the rope, uncle!
Stick the brand into his mug!
I'm flying!
Yefim! What are you doing?
I'm flying!
Arkhip, I'm flying!
Hey, you! Catch me!
Oh, my God! What is it?!
Arkhipushka!!
BUFFOON
Moscow is full of painters
even without us.
Don't worry, we'll find some job.
Sure. But it's still annoying that...
Yes. Take this birch-tree. Every day
you walked by, without noticing it.
But when you know
that you won't see it again...
Look at it, it's so beautiful!
- Sure thing, ten years.
- Nine.
- It's 9 for you, for me it's 10.
- No. For me it's 7, for you, 9.
Rain! Let's take cover here!
Come on! It's no big deal.
There went a buffoon breed,
They indulged in honey and mead.
They met a high-ranked boyar,
They met a one-eyed Tartar.
They amused him all along,
They honored him with a song.
Our boyar is a lucky devil,
His is a house of plentiful level.
His wife has a gorgeous body,
She may show it,
but not to everybody.
Good woman, open the door,
Your master is coming.
And the boyar, what a spunk!
Tried to make them funk.
All of you, buffoons,
Are drunks and thieves,
You're flogged and will be
's long as anybody breathes.
You vagabonding slime,
You'll die in your grime.
Soon all of your make
Will be burnt on the stake.
Rap! And he was grabbed
Somewhere between
his knee and his spleen.
The boyar used to have a beard.
Promptly, with a grin,
They shaved him clean.
And missing one's beard is wrong,
Because even women have beards
Where they belong.
The boyar whimpers and howls,
Hopping like a flea on the balls.
Even a goat has a beard.
I better go home to my endeared.
So he knocked on his window. Oh?
His wife would not recognize him, no.
She saw a face, bald and bare,
And failed to grab him by his hair.
She socked it to him with a pan. Bang!
So that he behaved, and not raved.
Shame and disgrace!
Better put pants on your face.
Look! Isn't it weird?
A boyar without his beard!
The boyar took to running and roaming,
After him the geese were swarming.
He ran with no luck,
Lame like a duck.
A priest on the road
Took him for a broad.
The priest, a horny stag,
Him to the bushes he dragged.
If you strip him of his pants
And look at his both ends,
There's no difference!
Which one is my mazard?
It's raining outside.
Can we wait here?
Come on in.
Want some mead?
You're dripping wet.
- Thank you. We don't drink.
- Nor of women we ever think.
A priest is God's doing,
a buffoon is the devil's.
What if my old woman goes
to the bushes, too?
Yours will be the first to go there.
Yours will be the first to go, anyway.
Come here!
- Where have you been?
- Just took a little walk.
Shall we go?
Hey, Danila!
The rain's over. Let's go.
Christ be with you, good woman.
THEOPHANES THE GREEK
Have mercy!
I'm innocent!
Maybe he IS innocent?
They've slandered me, vipers!
Anyone here?
- Did you come to have a look?
- Yes, to have a look.
Go ahead, look.
Before we put drying oil on.
So you're the Greek, Theophanes?
Yes. What are you looking at me for?
Look over there.
Where are you from?
From the Andronnikov Monastery.
Then you must be Andrei Rublyov.
No.
I hear everybody praising Rublyov
at the top of their voices.
Well, he's a good master.
But he'll never be able to do this.
It's amazing, with the colors being
so quiet.
Oh, God!
It's just...
Why did you stop praising?
Speak out.
I can't.
I can't even put it in words.
There's a great truth
in Konstantin Kostechensky's saying:
"You'll penetrate the crux of every
thing
if you describe it truthfully."
And Andrei...
Well, I'm ready to say it to his face.
He's like brother to me.
They praise him, that's right.
He puts the paint in a thin layer,
very delicately, very skillfully.
But something is missing...
Fear is missing, and faith!
The faith that comes from the bottom
of one's heart.
And simplicity.
Remember what Epiphanius said
about Sergius's virtue:
"Simplicity without flourish".
That's what it is.
It's holy.
Simplicity without flourish.
You couldn't put it better.
I see you're clever!
But what good is there in it?
Maybe it's better, in the darkness
of your ignorance,
to follow your heart's calling?
Too much wisdom
brings much sorrow.
He that increaseth knowledge
increaseth sorrow.
Proshka! Where's the drying oil?
Whose ears I'll have to box?
Where have they all gone?
They say you finish your paintings
very quickly.
That's the only way I can paint.
I get bored very soon.
Once I puttered over it for a whole
week and finally had to give it up!
And you threw it away?
Why?
Used it to press sauerkraut.
I'm fed up with it up to here!
I've got apprentices galore,
and not one of them is any good.
They can't even read manuscripts.
Listen, will you be my assistant?
Stop joking. Don't laugh at me.
I'm not joking.
I have no one to help me decorate
the Annunciation Cathedral in Moscow.
The scaffolding's been already
erected there. Do you understand?
I understand, but I think I'm not up
to the job.
I'll explain everything to you. Have
you ever painted on raw gesso ground?
Sure, with brains like yours!
Even these fools of mine
can work the brush.
I said no.
Let's not talk about it any more.
Well, as you wish...
But don't regret it later.
I don't forget easily!
I may regret,
but you're doing a wrong thing.
A poor monk came to you,
and you liked talking with him
about books.
So you decided
to do him a great favor.
As a matter of fact, I haven't
touched a book for three years.
And I don't want to.
My path is different now.
- I'm going to die soon.
- Come on, don't say that.
Yes, I'm going to die. The other day,
I saw an angel in my dream.
"Come with me," he says.
And I answer: "I'm going to die soon
anyway, without your help."
Won't you change your mind?
All right. But on one condition.
What do you want? Money?
We'll split it in half. Is it a deal?
No. I'll be working for free.
But only if you yourself come for me
to the monastery
and in front of the whole community
and our bishop
ask me to come and help you.
With all our brethren present,
and Andrei Rublyov, too.
Then I'll be like your slave,
I'll serve you like a dog
until I die.
- And what is your name?
- Kirill.
The Orthodox people!
Truth-seekers and Christians!
For how long are you going to torture
the villain?
Will there be an end to it?
You're all great sinners yourselves,
but you take it upon you to judge!
Don't you have any fear of God?
The Prince commands you
to come to Moscow.
To decorate the Annunciation Cathedral,
together with Theophanes the Greek.
Is he really Andrei Rublyov?
That's true. He is Andrei Rublyov.
And I'm Kirill.
Theophanes the Greek tells you
to come to Moscow.
He wants to see you.
I thank Theophanes, too.
Tell him...
that... well... I'll come.
My head is splitting!
Bring it here.
You may take with you
whatever assistants you want.
Tomorrow you'll have to be in Moscow.
Is there a smithy nearby?
I'm afraid I'll fall down again.
There's a chapel outside the gates.
Next will be the smithy.
Farewell, God's people!
We could go today, Danila.
What do you think?
Let's get our things and set out.
Before Theophanes may change his mind.
- I'm not going.
- What do you mean?
- What am I to do without you?
- Do as you like.
I thought we'd go together.
Why were you thinking for me?
I was not invited.
I can't go without you.
You can!
You said 'yes' without asking me.
You were too quick to agree.
Theophanes had only to beckon.
Never mind, though.
You're not the first
and you won't be the last.
I've got a lot of work here
even without you.
Very well, then!
Foma! Alexei! Come on!
Pyotr! Get ready!
You're going with me.
Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth;
and let thy heart cheer thee
in the days of thy youth.
And walk in the ways of thine heart,
and in the sight of thine eyes.
But know though, that for all these
things
God will bring thee into judgement.
Remember now thy Creator
in the days of thy youth,
while the evil days come not,
nor the years draw nigh,
when thou shalt say,
I have no pleasure in them.
Or ever the silver cord
be loosed,
or the golden bowl be broken,
or the pitcher be broken
at the fountain,
or the wheel be broken
at the cistern.
Then shall the dust return
to the earth as it was:
and the spirit shall return unto God
who gave it.
Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher;
All is vanity.
Kirill!
Have you seen Father Nikodim?
Where could he go so early
in the morning?
He took my mittens
and vanished into thin air.
I have to sort out firewood,
and the logs are ice-cold.
Why do you keep the torch on?
It's morning already.
Did you feed my dog?
You didn't ask me to, did you?
What's the matter?
Go...
Have you forgotten something?
I came to say goodbye.
You already did.
I came to say goodbye, but...
I was feeling pretty bad as it was.
And to make it worse, the devil has
brought about this enmity between us.
I can't leave like that.
I need to confess.
Will you hear it out?
I won't be able to do anything,
Danila.
We've lived in the same cell
for years.
I have nobody but you.
I see the world with your eyes.
I listen with your ears.
With your heart...
I'm happy for you,
you silly man.
You can't imagine how glad I am.
Go to Moscow, paint,
and I'll be proud of you.
The devil tripped me up yesterday
also.
Forgive me, too.
I'll be back, Danila.
Where are you going?
What about the vespers?
You'll serve it without me,
and I'll do without you.
What's the matter with you, Kirill?
I'm tired of it. Tired of lying!
I'm going in the world.
Why did we leave the Trinity?
Why don't you say it?
Because our brothers put their
interests above faith.
And here again? We thought we'd
be serving God by our faith and work,
and what have we got?
Our monastery looks like
a market place.
You, God's servant, how much did you
pay to be ordained? Twenty souls?
And you kept following the prior,
bargaining with him.
For two or, luckily,
for one water meadow,
you wanted to win eternal bliss
for yourself.
You all know it,
but you won't say anything!
You're pretending
you don't notice anything!
I might have kept silent, too,
and put up with all this abomination,
if I had any talent,
or at least some ability
to paint icons.
But God didn't give me talent,
and thank God!
I'm happy that I got no talent,
for because of that I'm honest
and pure before God!
And one more thing, brethren...
What can you tell us
that we don't know?
But do you know
what happens to ones like you?
I'm just...
Get out of here,
you viper's breed!
You'll thrive in the world!
Blasphemer!
You see...
Listen, Kirill...
It is written:
And Jesus went into the temple of God
and cast out all them that sold and
bought in the temple, and overthrew
the tables of the moneychangers
and the seats of them that sold doves.
And said unto them:
My house shall be called
the house of prayer,
but ye have made it
a den of thieves.
THE ANDREI PASSION
I washed Danila's brushes for 3 years
before he trusted me with an icon.
And not to correct it,
but just to clean it.
Do you trust me?
But you're lying all the time!
The other night you came back
with your cassock all glued together.
- Where had you been?
- At the apiary.
And you said you went to
the Andronnikov monastery.
Look at yourself!
Apply some damp dirt to it,
or you'll be bloated like a hog.
It must be too late already.
It won't help.
You're making up things on and on.
I even thought
you might have some disease.
What disease?
There must be such a disease
when a man can't stop lying.
Look, Foma! Look, I say!
- Look where?
- Never mind, blockhead.
I can't understand why I took you
to be my assistant.
You say one thing one day and another
the next. Didn't you tell Theophanes:
"This boy never misses a thing
and he likes the azure"?
You were a different person then.
You tried hard, you never lied.
You know what Theophanes said
about your azure?
"What good is in it, in the azure?"
And you love to eat.
It beats me how you can paint
after that?
Can you think of anything else
when your belly growls?
All you can hear is that growling.
You're a lucky man, Foma.
Everything's plain and simple for you.
Only through a prayer
our soul can discern what's invisible.
Look! What's that?
So, you decided to leave the apostles
on the left?
Foma, have you removed the glue
from the fire?
Have you removed the glue?
He likes the azure!
He should be beaten the crap out of
every Saturday!
Where did you see all this,
when everybody only think
of saving their asses?
Even those women of Moscow gave their
hair to the Tartars as a ransom.
They preferred to go bald
rather than be tortured.
What has unselfishness to do with it?
It's not right to say that.
It has always been that women
in Russia were oppressed and unhappy.
Anyway, it's not what I mean...
All right, tell me in all honesty,
are our people ignorant or not?
I can't hear you!
Yes, ignorant!
But who's to blame for that?
Their stupidity is to blame!
Have you never sinned
because you're ignorant?
Yes, and I have, too. O God, forgive,
reconcile and curb our passions!
The Day of Judgement is coming.
We'll all burn like candles.
Mind my word,
it will be hell!
People will lump the blame
for their sins on one another,
will be justifying themselves
before the Almighty.
I don't understand how you can paint,
having thoughts like that.
You even accept praise.
I'd have taken vows of schema long ago
and settled down in a cave for good.
I serve God, not people.
Today they praise, tomorrow they'll
abuse what they praised only yesterday,
and after that they'll forget both
you and me. They'll forget everything!
All is vanity! All is useless!
The human race had already
perpetrated all stupidities and wrongs,
and now it's just repeating them.
Everything falls back into place
again, and goes round and round...
If Jesus came back to Earth again,
He would be once more crucified!
If you remember only evil,
you can never be happy
before God.
What?
Maybe some things should be
forgotten, but not every thing.
I don't know how to say it...
If you don't know, then be silent!
Listen to me!
You think that good can be done
only single-handedly?
Good!
Have you forgotten the New Testament?
Jesus gathered people in the temples,
too. He taught them.
And then they gathered together
in order to execute Him.
"Crucify him!" they shouted.
And His disciples? Judas
betrayed Him, Peter renounced Him.
They all abandoned Him!
And they were the best!
But they repented!
That was much later, don't you
understand? When it was too late.
It's true, people do evil, too.
And it's very sad.
Judas had sold Christ out.
But do you remember who bought Him?
The people.
The Pharisees and their scribes.
They couldn't find any witness,
however hard they might have tried.
Who would slander Him, the innocent?
And the Pharisees were great
deceivers, literate and cunning.
They even learned to read and write
in order to gain power,
taking advantage of His ignorance.
People ought to be reminded more
often that they're human beings,
that all Russians
are of one blood and of one land!
Evil can be found anywhere.
There will always be those ready
to sell you for 30 pieces of silver.
And the Russian man
gets more and more misfortunes.
The Tartars raid him thrice a season,
then comes a famine or a plague.
But he keeps working and working,
bearing his cross with humility.
Never despairing, but enduring it
silently.
And only praying to God
to give him enough strength to endure.
Can the Almighty not forgive
such men their ignorance?
You know it yourself
that whenever something goes wrong,
or you're exhausted and despairing,
and suddenly...
you meet some human eyes
and it works
as if you took a Communion, and
the weight is lifted from your heart.
Isn't it so?
You were talking about Jesus.
Perhaps He was born and crucified
for only one reason:
to reconcile God with man.
Jesus comes from God,
it means He's Almighty.
And His dying on the cross
must have been preordained.
His crucifixion and death
were God's doing.
And it was supposed to provoke hatred
not of those who crucified Him,
but of those who loved Him, if they
had been with Him at that moment.
For they loved Him as a man.
But He abandoned them
of His own free will,
having shown injustice,
or even cruelty.
Do you realize what you're saying?
For these words, you'll be packed off
to the North to fix up icons.
Am I not right?
You always say
what you think yourself.
With me, it's different.
I'm a worldly man, a free man.
FEAS
Sergey, come here!
Coming!
Start the fire in the meantime!
Foma, let's go fetch some firewood.
Peter have seen
neither the Assumption,
nor the Dmitrievsky Cathedral.
Never mind. After he has roamed
the woods,
sweeping his brush,
he'll see what's right.
We won't be able to finish painting
the cathedral before the cold spell.
It will be June soon.
What is it?
Wait. Do you hear it?
- A nightingale.
- Nothing else?
Can you see it?
- What is it?
- Let's go! Come on!
Doing witchery.
Andrei! Where are you going?
- Come here...
- Wait...
I saw you, black vermin, lurking
there.
You, God's servants, need to know
everything.
Let me go!
We'll let you go first thing
in the morning.
With a stone on your neck, for you
to swim faster to your destination.
A fire will fall down from heavens
and will scorch you all!
The Day of Judgement will come
at last!
We'll fix you
right to this crosspiece.
Just like Jesus Christ.
What are you doing, men?
You can't do it to me, men!
Don't you understand? It's a sin!
At least tie me with my feet up.
Please, brothers!
Let him hang.
Let him spend the night like that,
unless he ascends.
He will be here alright.
Why did you ask to hang you
head down?
You'd have been even worse off.
And why did you curse us?
Threatening us with a fire?
Because it's a sin to run about naked
and do things like that.
This is the night
when everyone should love.
Is loving a sin?
You call it love tying a man up
like that?
It's just in case you decided
to bring guards or monks here.
To convert us to your faith
by force.
You think it's easy to live in fear,
like we do?
You fear because
you either don't love at all,
or love shamelessly, bestially,
not with your heart.
Love should be brotherly.
Does it make any difference?
It's still love.
Go on, untie me.
Where've you been?
Where were you?
The woods're all but impassable here.
I've got all scratched up.
But the locals even like it,
they got used to it.
People do everything out of habit.
I guess, old people don't have
to think about anything.
Each day for them rolls by itself.
Or maybe, it's even very comforting
for them:
it drags on and on from morn till
night, with no end.
Just look at yourself!
All scratched and black and blue.
Aren't you ashamed to appear like
that before your pupils?
- Couldn't you come back sooner?
- I couldn't.
Well, it's your sin,
your conscience, and your prayers.
Catch her! Grab the woman!
- Catch him!
- Grab her!
Run, Martha!
What's the matter with you? The three
of you can't manage one filthy man?
Why are they doing it? Why?
Because they won't believe in one God.
Damn pagans!
Don't look, Sergey!
You shouldn't look.
We'll go on living as we used to!
Go on, and no tricks.
Help me, Fyodor!
What's the matter with you, men?
Can't you subdue a woman?
Where are you going?
She will drown you in a jiffy!
Martha! Swim faster!
THE LAST JUDGEMEN
- Foma!
- What?
May I go and take a swim?
- Forget it!
- I'm too hot!
It's not hot.
Stop lying.
Let him go and take a swim.
All he can do is sit in the water.
He's just imagining it's hot.
It's I who said first it's hot,
not Sergey.
Enough! That's it!
You want to swim, go and swim!
Go on!
Why are you sitting? Go!
- Where's Andrei?
- He's out.
Something has happened...
Such a thing...
Well...
I dropped in at our bishop's,
and there was such a commotion!
The bishop, all livid,
was running about in his underwear.
"I can't stand it any longer,"
he says. "That's it!"
He was speaking about you.
"It's been two months since
everything was ready for their work,
and they're not doing anything,
just loitering about.
They'd demanded an exorbitant price,
and they haven't done a thing yet!"
- Did you really ask a lot of money?
- Oh, come on!
"It makes no difference to me,"
he says.
"Whether it is Daniil Chorny or
Andrei Rublyov! I don't care!"
"What's going on?" he says.
And he made a face like that.
"What is it?" he says. "What do I
care if it's Rublyov? If it's Andrei?"
"I need the cathedral to be painted
by the fall, and that's it!" he says.
He sent a messenger to the Grand
Prince with a complaint.
Sent a messenger to the Grand.
You mind that.
What? You really... haven't
started yet?
You know...
you better start... or else...
- Where's Andrei?
- He's gone somewhere again.
Can't you do it without him?
Start without him.
What's so funny?
There're so many of you.
If he hasn't decided yet,
there are enough of you!
Two heads are better that one...
Ah, Andrei, Andrei!
You see, a messenger already went
to complain to the Prince.
Just say 'yes' or 'no'?
Yes or no.
Hadn't we decided all in Moscow?
We'd agreed on everything
up to the last detail.
The Grand Prince himself
had approved it.
What is still unclear to you then?
What have we been shouting ourselves
hoarse about for two months?
Maybe I'm too old,
maybe I'm out of my mind?
"The Last Judgement".
Just go ahead and paint it.
Or maybe we better turn down
this work?
Really, let's turn it down.
And how am I going to look people
in the eyes? I'll burn with shame.
We're losing precious time!
The weather is warm and dry.
We could've already finished the domed
ceiling. And the pillars, too.
And we could've made them
so beautiful and vivid!
We could depict the sinners
boiling in tar in such a way that...
it would make one's flesh creep.
I know how to paint the devil, with
smoke from his nose and eyes like...
Smoke is not the point!
- What is the point then?
- I don't know!
- Why won't you look me in the eye?
- I can't!
I can't paint this.
It's against me. Can't you understand?
I don't want to scare people.
Try to understand, Danila.
Come to your senses! It's the Last
Judgement, that's what it is!
It's not my invention.
No, I can't!
Why didn't you say it in Moscow?
We shouldn't have taken it up
in the first place.
It's so impure!
That's how I am! You seem to have
failed to cultivate purity in me.
I'm leaving you.
This kind of work is not for me.
Thank you for everything,
for the clips on my nose.
You've taught me something, that's
enough. I'm going to work.
They invited me to decorate a chapel
in Pafnutiev.
It's not a big deal,
but at least it's something.
I'm going to paint
"The Last Judgement".
Anyone going with me?
All right, stay.
But be sure not to regret it later!
Though I speak with the tongues
of men and of angels,
but have not love,
I have become sounding brass.
And though I have the gift of prophesy,
and understand... all knowledge,
and though I have all faith,
so that I could remove mountains,
but have not love, I am nothing.
And though I bestow all my goods... and
though I give my body to be burned,
but have not love,
it profits me nothing!
Love suffers long,
and is kind;
love envies not;
love does not parade itself,
is not puffed up,
dos not behave itself unseemly,
seeks not her own, is not easily
provoked, thinks no evil;
does not rejoice in iniquity,
but rejoices in the truth;
bears all things, believes all things,
hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never fails...
But whether there be prophesies,
they shall fail;
whether there be tongues, they'll cease;
...knowledge, it shall vanish away.
For we know in part...
Well, Princess, is it any good?
To splash milk around is sinful.
It's naughty.
Why is it sinful?
Just because.
Go on, wipe me up.
It'll dry up by itself.
Let's go with me for a walk
by the river.
Let go of me, Stepan! Let go,
or I'll send you to the stable!
What do you think? Do you like it?
For me, it couldn't be better.
It's so light and beautiful.
Light...
Come on, take her away from here.
The nurses have spoiled her rotten.
Don't worry, no one could've built
you a mansion like we have.
Who could decorate it so beautifully?
And the carving?
Only Mityai can do it.
He carves without marking.
Just like a bird singing.
Look at it!
Maybe it's like a bird, but...
For me it's all right to sleep in
a barn, but you're a Grand Prince.
What? Don't you like it?
Everything has to be repainted.
The walls and the ceiling.
To make it brighter and more vivid.
I've been in this business forty
years!
What matters is not your skill,
but to be able to glorify the prince.
We're not going to redo anything.
It's time for us to leave.
We've been hired for another job.
They expect us in Zvenigorod.
Where?
At your brother's. The stone's
already been brought up there.
Very good stone.
Whiter than this one.
We agreed on it when your brother
was here at Easter time.
"Do whatever you like," he said.
"I won't spare any money.
Just make me the best mansion."
Well, if it's Zvenigorod,
let it be Zvenigorod!
I looked at the prince,
he just stood still.
When I told him about Zvenigorod?
He was just horror-stricken.
He's afraid that his brother
will go one up on him.
- And who carved this?
- I did.
Why didn't you fix it into the wall?
It didn't work.
- A fine beast.
- It crumbled all the way.
I'd warned the prince
not to scrimp on the stone.
He must be regretting it now
that he knows about Zvenigorod.
Come on, move!
Where's Stepan?
Where did Stepan ride to?
I guess he went to Zvenigorod.
All right then.
My hands are dirty.
We're going to build his younger
brother a mansion no worse that this.
- He's got a better stone?
- Yes, much better.
- Look! Stepan!
- What's he doing here?
Hold it, old man!
You, Goat!
Help him. Hide him in the bushes.
Where's my whip?
- Mikola!
- Mityai!
Anyone seen my whip?
Damn it!
I've lost my whip.
Hey, Goat!
Have you seen my whip?
Sergey, read from the Scriptures.
- What place?
- Whatever you like.
Now I praise you, brethren, that
you remember me in all things
and keep the ordinances
as I delivered them to you.
But I would have you know
that the head of every man is Christ
and the head of the woman is the man,
and the head of Christ is God.
Every man praying or prophesying,
having his head covered,
dishonoreth his head.
But every woman that prayeth or
prophesyeth with her head uncovered
dishonoreth her head,
for that is even all one
as if she were shaven.
For if the woman be not covered,
let her also be shorn.
But if it be a shame for a woman to
be shorn or shaven, let her be covered.
For a man indeed ought not
to cover his head,
since he is the image
and glory of God;
but the woman is the glory of the man.
For the man is not of the woman,
but the woman of the man.
Neither was the man created for
the woman, but the woman for the man.
For this cause ought the woman
to have power on her head,
because of the angels.
Nevertheless, neither is the man without
woman, neither the woman without man...
Go on.
For as the woman is of the man, even
so is the man also by the woman;
but all things of God.
Judge among yourselves.
Is it proper for a woman
praying to God uncovered?
Doth not even nature itself teach you
that if a man has long hair,
it is a shame onto him?
But if a woman has long hair,
it is a glory to her;
for her hair is given her...
Why did you stop? Go on!
...it is a glory to her.
For her hair is given her for...
Danila! Listen, Danila!
Feast! It's the feast, Danila!
And you were saying...
They're not sinners, are they?
How can she be a sinner,
even if she doesn't wear a kerchief?
Some sinner!
Leave him alone.
Let this servant of God repent.
ANDREI RUBLYOV
Part Two
RAID
They're coming! Prince!
The Tartars are coming!
Summon everybody!
Do you hear me, Kosoy?
Hey, Prince!
What have you got here?
Is that the ford?
The rains have flooded it.
Go further!
Follow us!
We already wanted to leave.
We expected you yesterday.
Small town on my way.
Wanted to go round it.
But couldn't help myself.
Sorry I'm late.
Never mind. Let's go!
Keep left, there's a shallow place.
You're not going to cheat me?
Why do you say such thing?
Vladimir is empty.
The Grand Prince is off
to Lithuania.
The town is over there,
behind that forest.
They say the Grand Prince has
a little son growing up,
and you're aspiring after his crown.
We'll see.
I can see you're longing for
the throne. I can understand it.
Where are you going?
I told you, keep left!
Hold it!
Keep up, Prince!
I see there's no love lost between
you and your brother.
That must be our fate.
When did you make up with him
the last time?
I didn't.
The metropolitan made us
take an oath before God
that we live in peace and harmony.
The Grand Prince is coming.
So my brother's here.
Vladimir is so beautiful!
Isn't it, Prince?
It's no small town.
Let's go!
Don't lag behind!
Vaska, you dog, I'll maim you!
Keep up with the prince!
Charge!
To the gates!
Tartars!
Run!
Run!
Hold him, Foma!
I'm going to...
What are you doing, brothers?
We're Russians, like you...
I'll teach you, Vladimir scum!
Catch him! Grab him!
You lamebrain!
Run around!
Are you deaf or what? Around!
Where are we?
Nobody here.
They all scattered.
Your bitch has grown up.
Not recognized me, she forgot.
My dear man, please,
let me go!
Let me go!
Well, Prince?
Don't you feel sorry about
the cathedral?
Oh, damn you! Thieves!
Bastards! Scoundrels!
Listen, Prince,
who is that woman lying down?
It's not a woman.
That's Mary, the Virgin.
It's the birth of Jesus Christ.
And who's in the box?
Christ, her son.
How can she be a virgin
if she has a son?
Well though, in this Russia of yours,
even stranger things happen.
Interesting!
It hurts!
Oh, my God, how it hurts!
I'm burning! It hurts!
Oh, woe upon us!
I don't know where the gold is.
It must have been stolen.
It must be your Tartars who stole it.
You are all thieves!
You'd better ask your own people.
Go ahead and ask them.
- Did he tell?
- Didn't tell the truth yet.
Wait, listen what I'm going to say...
Look how a Russian,
Orthodox,
innocent man is being tortured
by thieves.
Look, Judas, Tartar muzzle!
You liar! I'm Russian!
I recognized you.
You look like your brother.
You've betrayed Russia!
I did recognize you!
Oh, how it hurts!
I'm not telling you anything...
Mind my words,
never there will be
the Tartar's foot on Russian soil.
I swear to God,
never!
I'll kiss the cross...
Give the cross to an Orthodox man!
You'll get your cross.
If I've sinned,
the Lord will forgive me.
He is merciful, He will forgive!
O Lord, will You forgive me,
will You?
And you all will boil
in a pot of tar!
You will be gone,
and we'll build everything anew.
Let you be disemboweled
in hell's fire!
O Lord... What are you doing?
What for?
Vipers!
Theophanes! You're dead, aren't you?
I dreamt
that you were hanging
head down from the window,
looking up
and wagging your finger at me.
And I was lying
across a horse saddle,
with two horde men
twisting my head.
You were looking and knocking
on the window with your finger.
- And I was shouting to you...
- What were you shouting?
Listen, what's going on?
They murder, they rape,
they plunder churches
together with the Tartars.
And you were telling me...
Only I feel much worse now
than you.
You're dead, and I...
Yes, I'm dead, so what?
That's not what I mean! I've spent
half of my life being blind!
Half of my life, like that...
Day and night I worked for them,
for people...
But they're not people.
You were saying the truth then.
The truth.
It doesn't matter what I was saying.
You're wrong now,
I was wrong then.
Aren't we of the same faith?
Of the same land? Of the same blood?
One Tartar even laughed at us.
Like this.
He shouted: "You'll cut one another's
throat even without us!"
What a shame!
They murdered everybody.
And my Seryoga, too.
I found him on such a day...
She alone remained.
- I have to go.
- Wait...
Please, don't go away!
Do you feel ill at ease with me?
Are you bored? I won't say it again.
Let's sit down and talk.
I'm going to tell you...
I know everything.
I'll never paint again.
- Why?
- Nobody needs it.
Just because one iconostasis has been
burned?
Do you know how much of my work
has been burned?
In Pskov,
in Novgorod, in Galitch...
It's a great sin that you're taking
upon yourself.
I haven't told you the most important
thing.
I killed a man.
A Russian man.
When I saw him dragging her...
Look...
Just look at her!
It's because of our sins that
evil has taken a human guise.
Attempting to kill evil,
you make an attempt on human life.
God will forgive you,
but you must not forgive yourself.
And go on living
between His forgiveness
and your own torment.
As for your sin... Remember
what's written in your Scriptures?
"Learn to do well;
Seek judgement;
Relieve the oppressed;
Defend the fatherless.
Come now, and let us reason together,
Says the Lord,
Though your sins be
as scarlet,
They shall be as white as snow..."
See, I haven't forgotten it,
I still remember!
Maybe, you'll feel better, too.
I know, God is merciful, He will
forgive.
I'll take a vow of silence before God,
and I won't say a word.
I have nothing to talk with people
about any more.
Isn't it the right thing to do?
I have no right to give you
any advice. I can't.
Haven't you got in Paradise?
Oh, God...
Everything over there is not like
you here think it is.
Russia...
Dear Russia, she endures everything.
And will continue to endure.
For how long will it be going on?
I don't know.
Forever, I guess.
And yet all this is so beautiful!
It's snowing...
There's nothing more frightful
than snow falling in the temple.
Don't you think so?
SILENCE
The apples are all rotten.
I've been on this earth so many years,
yet I don't remember such a famine.
We're dying out little by little,
forgive us God.
Not a soul left in our neighborhood.
All the villages are empty.
Everyone from Khotkovo left
for somewhere.
The Semyonovka people ran away, too.
There's no one in Semyonovka,
I passed by it this morning.
In Vladimir, they have had no harvest
for three years.
And all the people ran off.
Those that stayed are hunting rats.
Why are you whispering?
I caught cold spending the night
in the lake.
How come?
The wolves got the better of me,
so I waded into the lake.
I only prayed to God
that they wouldn't jump in.
I stood like that until dawn.
When I got out, I felt all numb.
I can't recover for two weeks now.
- Are you from Vladimir?
- Yes, I used to live there.
There comes another man from Vladimir.
Not saying a word since he left
Vladimir.
He took a vow of silence.
He had sinned, now he's repenting.
He brought a God's fool with him
from Vladimir. She's dumb.
So they keep mum together.
He brought her here so that he could
feel his shame,
to have his sin
always before him.
That's holiness for you!
What about Andrei's artel?
It had broken up.
Some were killed by Tartars,
others went their own ways.
And Danila? Is he alive?
People say all kind of things.
Either he went to the North,
or he's dead.
Has he given up his craft altogether?
You're Kirill, aren't you?
Kirill? Is that you?
That Mephody again!
Now he's let the Tartars in here!
It's bad to eat dirty meat!
For God's sake, don't turn me out,
Father! There's no truth in the world!
I can't go on sinning every day
any more!
And one can't live otherwise
in the world!
Accept my repentance, Father!
And I'll be kissing your feet!
You were always good at talking.
No, you won't move me to pity.
If you only knew, Father,
how much hardship I've gone through,
how much evil I've endured,
then you would have forgiven me,
but I'll never forgive myself.
Your guilt is not before me,
your guilt is before God.
Stay!
And as a redemption for your sins,
you shall copy the Scripture 15 times.
You may take
the late Father Nikodim's cell.
Thank you, Lord!
Thank you, brethren!
How good it is!
Thank you, our Father!
Good Russian, eating horse meat!
Want to go with us to the Horde?
You'll be my wife.
I got seven wives,
but no Russian wife yet.
Every day
you'll be eating horse meat,
drinking koumiss,
wearing gold coins in your hair.
Lower your head!
With a Tartar husband,
a Russian wife can't go about dirty.
Let's go with us, girl!
Come on! Give me your hand!
Andrei!
Don't you recognize me?
Don't you worry. They'll give her
a ride and let her go.
They won't dare hurting a God's
fool. That's a great sin.
BELL
Is this Nikola the founder's house?
Yes, it is.
- Is he your father?
- Yes, my father.
- Call him.
- He's not here.
Where's he?
He's dead.
The plague has gotten them all:
My mother, sister and father, too.
And where's the house of Gavrila
the founder?
Gavrila is dead, too.
So is Kasyan the craftsman.
Ivashka's been taken away by Tartars,
only Fyodor remained.
Go to him,
but you'd better hurry.
He's lying in bed, whizzing,
with his eyes closed.
He might die any minute now.
I can't stand it any more!
Where are we to look now?
- We'd better go back home.
- Get up, I say!
Back home... Sprawling like that!
What have we come to?!
There's no one to cast a bell!
Take me along!
I'll cast you a bell!
Are you crazy?
Take me to the Prince.
I'll do a fine job!
You're not going to find anyone
anyway. They're all dead.
You won't find anyone better than me!
- Lay off!
- All right! So much worse for you!
I know the bell secret!
I know it, but I won't tell you!
My father knew the secret of bell
bronze.
Before he died, he passed it on to me.
No one else knows it!
Only I know! I!
My father told me the secret...
- Shall we take this servant of God?
- He's just talking rot.
Do you want the Grand
to skin us alive?
- He's lying about the secret!
- Then he will answer for it.
Come here!
Hop on!
- What about my hut?
- Sit on.
Well, you've talked him into it
after all?
Where are we going? What are we
looking for? We can dig over here.
Do we dig here?
We could, but it would be better
to dig closer to the belfry,
not to have to carry the weight
such a distance...
We can dig here, can't we?
Let's do it here.
Come on, mark it!
Let's dig together.
We're founders, not navvies.
Why should we putter in the earth?
You know what my father said
before he died?
"Founders must dig a foundry pit
themselves."
"I've come to understand it," he said,
"only in my old age."
He said that and died.
I don't know what Nikola said,
but I'm not going to dig.
If you need us, call us.
Well, have you found it?
What is there to find? There it is.
Is that it?
No, that's not the right clay.
- We always took it from here.
- And were making fools of yourselves!
- This clay's not good, is it?
- No good.
You see? Let's go.
We'll keep on looking
until we find it.
Listen, Stepan, maybe we shouldn't
do it?
Sure, we shouldn't. Look what clay
we've found,
how much work we've done before
we found a new place, and you...
That's not it. Don't you understand?
There you go again. August is almost
over, and we haven't found the clay!
I just pity you.
Don't! I've lived without your pity
for years!
Let's go, Boris dear!
I can't!
I know that's not the right clay!
- And which one is "right"?
- I know which.
I don't need such workers!
We'll do fine without you!
I don't need such workers!
Andreika!
Semyon!
I've found it!
Uncle Pyotr! I've found it!
The clay! Uncle Semyon!
The clay is here! Stepan!
Where are you all?
- Boris!
- What?
- Shall I dig it in?
- I'm coming!
Coming!
Where's Nikolai?
He went for the timber.
It should've been here already!
What am I going to reinforce it with?
- He left first thing in the morning.
- That Nikolai of yours is an idiot!
Why are you standing like that?
Go on, work!
- The merchants won't go for it.
- Why won't they go for it?
They asked the price thrice as big.
They say they give this rope cheap.
- Are we going to pay that price?
- Go ahead and pay!
The prince will kill you for that!
We're going to ruin him.
What do I care now!
Go away, old man, or you'll be hurt.
Don't start digging it in without me.
Boris!
Coming!
Well?
This mould won't hold,
we'll have to twine it all around.
It's time to coat it with clay,
and you haven't made the mould yet!
We need to reinforce it more,
but there're no more twigs.
Finish it up, we must start
baking the clay by the evening.
If the mould isn't reinforced,
it won't stand bronze, it'll crack.
What if we don't bake it
before snow?
I'll be flogged then, not you.
The mould won't hold in here.
Finish up the mould!
Do you hear me or not?
I'm not going to do it.
Suit yourself, but get out if here!
Andreika, finish it up.
He's not going to do it either.
- Are you going to do it?
- It won't hold!
We need to twine it more.
Are you going to obey me?
Who is in charge here?
We need one more layer.
- Fyodor!
- I'm here.
Flog him.
Not him, this one.
He refuses to work,
he wouldn't listen to my orders.
I'm going to show you
who is in charge here!
Your father didn't treat us like that.
So you remembered my father? Let him
be flogged in the name of my father!
Finish it up!
- Dig it in without me!
- We're waiting for you!
Dig it in without me!
Go and have some sleep.
What are you staring at?
Have you swallowed your tongue?
Or are you deaf?
What? Feel sorry for him?
Then go and console him.
That's what you monks are for.
Boris, wake up!
I began baking.
Why without me?
I told you to wake me up.
I know myself when to do it!
Pyotr, people from the prince are
here. They're asking for you.
That's what I call real hot!
Isn't it hot?
That will be enough for you.
Not enough silver.
Tell the prince not to be stingy.
The Grand Prince is never stingy.
I don't know,
but we need another half pood.
What difference does it make...
Who knows the secret of bell bronze,
you or me?
Tell the prince not to be stingy.
We need another half pood.
I'm going to shake a lot of silver
out of the prince.
And the bell won't ring!
I recognized him!
Beat him up!
You all, beat him!
Beat the monk!
Why are you attacking the man?
You took him for someone else.
Why attack him?
No, I'm not mistaken!
It's him, I know!
He used to be smooth and handsome...
Now he's all worn out, too.
I spent ten years in prison
because of him!
They've taken off half of my tongue!
Let go!
Let go of me!
I'll kill him!
I'll kill him.
He's innocent,
he never betrayed anyone!
I can swear on the cross!
Oh God, why do You send
this punishment?
Go on, strike me, but don't touch him!
Get up! Get up!
Get up, I say...
Come on, get up...
How heavy you are.
The prince's jester is dead.
They invited me to be his jester.
Bu what do I need the prince for?
I'd better be a joiner.
But I did recognize this one!
I did.
That's him who'd sold me out.
Come on, give me a drink.
You ain't seen nothing yet!
Remove it.
Take a sample!
Go to the third furnace!
Shall we put more firewood into the
third? You're going to cool it down!
Splash some water on the hose!
Why are you standing?
Go on, work! Add some more!
Move!
Some more for the second furnace?
Go ahead!
Come on, pump it!
More for the second!
- Where's Boris?
- He went to the casters.
The second and third furnaces are
ready!
The first will be ready soon.
Come, everyone is ready!
Open it!
Everything is ready.
Shall we begin?
Come on!
Pour it in! Come on!
It's flowing! Boriska! It's flowing!
Look, it's flowing!
O Lord! Help us! Let it work!
Tomorrow is going to be the day!
I wish we could have some sleep...
- Boris, are you coming?
- I'm coming...
Coming...
Listen, Andrei...
I kept thinking about it,
and I've decided to tell you.
I envied you, you know it yourself.
Envy was eating me up so much
that it had poisoned my guts.
I couldn't bear it anymore, so I left.
God is my witness, because of you.
But when I learned that you
had given up painting,
I felt so much better,
and then forgot about it.
I just want to finish copying
the Scriptures before I die.
Our Father Superior is so strict,
he's imposed a very severe penance.
I'm afraid I won't make it now.
Oh, why am I confessing to you?
I don't have to.
You're a great sinner yourself.
You've sinned more than I.
What am I? Just a worthless worm.
What can be expected of me?
And you?
For what holy deeds has God
given you your talent?
What are your deserts?
Oh God, that's not the point...
I know that Nikon has already sent
three messengers to you,
trying to talk you into decorating
the Trinity.
And you wouldn't even speak to them.
I must admit
that it provoked a feeling of joy
in my base soul,
at the very bottom of it.
But now that my life's coming
to an end,
my soul cries for eternal rest.
Nikon doesn't care a thing about your
life. He's calling you,
because he wants to strengthen and
glorify his power with your talent.
Well, let God be his judge.
Listen to me.
Go to the Trinity and paint, paint!
It's a great sin,
to reject a God-given gift.
If Theophanes were alive,
he would have said so, too.
Look at me,
look at the one who has no talent!
Why do you think I've come back?
Just to have something to eat
and to live out my days in peace.
I'm going to die soon,
and nothing will be left after me.
You're not going to live
forever, too.
Do you want to take your talent
with you into your grave?
Why don't you say something?
Say one word, at least!
As for that buffoon... that was me...
Curse me at least,
but don't keep silent, Andrei!
- It may break in this place.
- Bite your tongue.
Ease the end out.
We shouldn't have tied it in a knot,
it should've been fastened with metal.
I told Boris...
Well?
Yes, sure...
Come then.
Everyone, leave!
- How is it with you?
- All set!
Everyone go up, quick!
- All ready?
- Yes!
Move forward!
Separate the ropes!
Don't get the ends tangled!
Come on, give a signal!
Wave your hand.
Go!
- Look, who's that?
- The Grand Prince.
- And who are those with him?
- Foreigners.
That's some day, Holy Mother!
Damn it, the Grand Prince is coming,
and a foreign ambassador with him.
Are we going to make it?
You'd better do, damn you!
This bell is being blessed
and consecrated
by besprinkling on it of this holy
water.
In the name of the Father, the Son
and the Holy Ghost. Amen.
This bell is being blessed
and consecrated
by besprinkling on it of this holy
water.
In the name of the Father, the Son
and the Holy Ghost. Amen.
This bell is being blessed
and consecrated
by besprinkling on it of this holy
water.
In the name of the Father, the Son
and the Holy Ghost. Amen.
See what kind I put in charge here?
Where are you going? Go there...
Come on, come on, blockhead!
Shall I give you a hand
or you'll swing it yourself?
Don't.
My father, the old beast,
would not pass to me the secret.
He died, never telling me the secret.
Took it to his grave, old tightwad.
You see, everything worked out right.
Beautiful! Stop it.
We'll go together now.
You'll be casting bells,
and I'll be painting icons.
We'll go to the Trinity,
you and me.
You've created such a feast,
such a joy for people.
Why are crying?
There... there...
Stop crying...
There... there... enough...
Calm down.
Enough, hush, hush...
The End