On the evening of September 18, 2024, Holy Patriarch Porphyrios of Serbia opened the premiere of the documentary «People of Christ. Our Time», about the persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church by the Ukrainian state authorities. As reported by RIA «Novosti», the premiere screening took place in the building of the «Yugoslavian Cinema».
RIA «Novosti».
The director and screenwriter of the film — Jovan Markovic. Hierarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church Bishop Irinej of Bacsk, famous film director Emir Kusturica, Orthodox priest, philosopher and poet Mario Selvini from Genoa (Italy), lecturer at Cambridge University (UK) Vukan Markovic, Donbass-born music producer Yuri Bardash share their thoughts in the tape. Philosopher Ruslan Kalinchuk from Ivano-Frankivsk and priest Mykola Mogilny from Kiev also spoke about the pressure on believers in Ukraine in the documentary.
«God bless all those who made efforts to make this movie for the world to see, all those who contributed, participated in the making of this movie and all people of goodwill» — said His Holiness Patriarch Porphyrios of Serbia before the start of the film
Bishop Irinej of Bacsk, director Emir Kusturica, who produced the documentary, Sputnik Serbia editor-in-chief Ljubinka Milincic, and public figures were also among those who participated in the event.
Bishop Irinej of Bacsk, director Emir Kusturica, who produced the documentary, Ljubinka Milincic, editor-in-chief of Sputnik Serbia, and public figures.
The film shows the chronicle of persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church unleashed by the Ukrainian authorities, including the facts of forceful seizures of churches and displacement of monks from the premises of Uspenska Kievo-Pechersk Lavra, dispersal of believers and priests who disagree with the oppression of the Church. The picture also refers to the adoption by the Verkhovna Rada of a law suggesting a ban on the canonical Church in Ukraine. Temples and monasteries are being searched, bishops and priests are being prosecuted, put under arrest and attacked.
«As it used to happen in Yugoslavia, so now, unfortunately, it is happening in Ukraine, — according to the creators of the picture, who are quoted by Komsomolskaya Pravda. — We tell about the ban of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Ukraine and try to give viewers a little more information than you can get from the media compared to the whole of Europe and even Serbia. We wanted everyone to watch the picture and start thinking about what is going on in the world, how the to be and how to go on living.
According to the director Emir Kusturica.
According to director Emir Kusturica, Orthodox Christians need to stick together because Orthodoxy, the religion of many peoples, including Serbs, is now in serious danger, reported TRK «Zvezda».
As Bishop Irenaeus of Bach noted, Volodymyr Zelensky in Ukraine «has done something that not even the persecutors, torturers, criminals in history, starting with Nero and Diocletian, have done: no one has ever tried to ban the Church as such, but he has done it»
EVCS Communication Service/Patriarchy.ru
