Denmark
The Monastery: Mr. Vig and the Nun
Review by gloria wong.
Meet Jorgen Lauersen Vig, an elderly Dane whose high eccentricity can be illustrated by one defining fact - Mr. Vig owns a ramshackle castle, and, though he's not especially religious, it's his life's ambition to turn it into a Russian Orthodox Monastery. He eventually convinces the Church to send a delegation of nuns to investigate the castle's appropriateness as a monastery and begin negotiations with Mr. Vig on the Church's behalf, and Mr. Vig starts working tirelessly to ready the rundown castle for their arrival. The delegation is headed by the strongwilled and beautiful Sister Ambrosija and there are problems from day one. Mr. Vig seems to have amassed a startling amount of Buddhist and Hindu artwork that must be removed. The castle is leaking and lacks proper heating, which Sister Ambrosija has the audacity to insist on repairing before the Church will commit to starting a monastery, and Mr. Vig is really not a people person. The highly amusing clashes between this odd pair that make up the bulk of the story are the stuff of a documentarian's dreams, and their eventual mutual friendship is all the more touching because of that. Shot over the better part of a decade, the pleasures of The Monastery seem to be unique to Scandinavian documentaries - maybe it's the socialism, or the general lack of sunshine. The characters are so sharply drawn, the humour so honest, The Monastery is a humbling reminder that some things truly cannot be made up.
The Monastery: Mr. Vig and the Nun
Pernille Rose Gronkjaer | Denmark | 2006 | 84min
Thur. Sept. 27 | 4:30pm | Pacific Cinematheque
Sat. Sept. 29 | 7:00pm | Pacific Cinematheque
Thur. Oct. 4 | 10:30am | Empire Granville Theatre