Daniil Chernogortsev

A high school pupil Styopa is late for classes at an Orthodox gymnasium, but before going into the classroom he peeps into the library to check if there is a note from his beloved Lily in the hiding place they haven’t met for several days, she does not respond in social network. it’s time for the lessons to begin but the classrooms are empty, everybody is in the assembly hall.

Lesha Stolyarov's contemporary art includes bitumen paintings, pictures made of gas burners, abstract art, in short, everything that is incomprehensible to the layman. Recently, Lesha has been going through a creative crisis; he wants to speak about God, but using the artistic means that are unfamiliar to hm. So he decides to make an experiment and travels to the Spaso-Sumorin Monastery in distant Totma to set up an installation amidst the Vologda snows. Only one monk lives in this monastery – Father Feodosiy. Forty years ago, he was a painter but abandoned his craft to serve God. One would think he should be sympathetic to art. However, the ultra-modern artist clashes with an equally "ultra" counterpart – only an orthodox one. Is it possible to reconcile contemporary art and the church, new trends and two-thousand-year-old traditions?