THE PRIESTESS
Armenia, 2007, 120 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Vigen Chaldranian.
This historical epic, combined with contemporary psychology, is well worth a look.
While it starts in Yerevan in the present when a young woman is knocked down in a car accident and undergoes therapy, it also goes back into 3rd century Armenian history. The woman comes to consciousness and tells her story – that she is a priestess of Mithra, carefully chosen and groomed, with seer-like powers.
The 3rd century story is intriguing with attention to detail about the installation of the priestess, the Mithraic rituals, her prophecies. However, she is also the daughter of a farmer and lives out of the city in the countryside. This story is told in flashbacks as the screenplay returns to the present and the introduction of a scholar who knows the historical background and leads her through the events. The main threat to her health and exploring this story is that her doctor and medical staff want to resort to shock therapy to bring her to her real self.
The doctor (played by the director who also produced and did production and costume design) is a quiet, bookish man. The director also plays a dashing tutor of the royal family who encounters the priestess without knowing who she is and has an affair with her. She becomes pregnant. However, he is killed, unable to read out the royal proclamation of persecution and death for Christians.
Armenia was the first nation to officially accept Christianity (301 AD). The film is a speculation about that conversion. The priestess foresees the conversion (with a short sequence showing Jesus carrying his cross – and played by the director as well). She goes into exile and encounters the imprisoned St Gregory the Illuminator, helps him survive and, with her son, is instrumental in the conversion of the people.
This is no Da Vinci Code material. The device of having a contemporary woman imagine she is a reincarnation of a ‘historical’ person was used in Michael Anderson’s 1972 film Pope Joan, with Liv Ullmann. While the priestess story is the invention of the writer and director, the Temple at Garni where she was installed is still there as are the caves at Khor Virap where Gregory was imprisoned. So, for Armenians it is a kind of movie historical novel. And, for non Armenians, an easy way into appreciating this period of transition from pagan practice to Christianity.
1.An Armenian production? History? Religion? Fact and invention?
2.The production values, the locations, Garni and the temple, the countryside, the farm? The caves? Costumes and décor? The director and his roles in production design, costumes, performances? The musical score?
3.The contemporary world stories, the library, the hospitals? The plausibility of the psychological cases?
4.The title, the focus on the woman, the accident in the street, going to the hospital, her words, memories, her story? That she was the priestess reincarnate? The priestess in the past, the choice of the people, painting her in gold, the ritual at the temple, her going down under to temple, the response of the people, the crowds, the clowns in the front of the temple? The pagan temple of Mithra, the union with the god? Her role as a seer, her prophecies, the king, his illness? Her reputation? People’s demands? Love and fear?
5.The character of the girl, the choice of the priestess, her believing that she was the priestess? The spiritual life as the priestess? Yet on the farm, with her father? The relationship with the king, his sister, their demands? Meeting Theo, his being a dashing soldier, courtier? In the cave, their further meetings, the swimming in the water, the sexual liaison, the truth? Her pregnancy, fears, Theo’s death? Her father and his talk about Christianity? His death?
6.The king, the court, Theo as tutor, the holding of the court, the crowds, the clowns’ performance? The decree about Christianity – and Theo not able to read it out? His death? (The voice of Theo, the voice to the woman in the contemporary story?)
7.The priestess, now alone, her fears? Her father’s death, the mystery, her exile? Wandering, pregnant? The cave, the voice, the encounter with Gregory the Illuminator? Their discussions, his Christian perspective? Her help, giving him the bread, sustaining him? Her simple life, giving birth to her child? The help of Gregory? The sister of the king, discovering her in the cave, wanting an oracle from the priestess?
8.The prophecy about Christianity, the sister of the king and her dreams, her conversion? The king, the effect? The acceptance of Christianity by Armenia? As a nation? The crowd scenes of baptism? 301AD? The importance of the tableau: the girl, as priestess, the talk of Jesus Christ, the vision of Jesus carrying his cross?
9.The discussions about Christianity, Armenian traditions and legends? The role of Gregory the Illuminator?
10.The woman in the hospital, her gradual recovery, the continuing telling of the story? Her identification with the priestess?
11.The character of the librarian, his narrative, quiet, ageing, nothing exciting in his life, his divorce? At work? Summoned to the hospital? The discussions with the doctor? The woman and her languages, his identifying them? Continuing to talk with her, the consultations with the doctor, her mental health? His interest, the bond with the woman, the development of her story? The doctor, his consultations, the plan for the surgery? The librarian, his discovering this, rushing to the hospital, his objections? The woman, the surgery, the aftermath?
12.The atmosphere of mystery? The psychological mystery? Possibilities of reincarnation? Shared memories? The intercutting of this with the story of the priestess?
