Memorable, crazy movie

Just what I expected

Absolutely the worst movie.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

I was moved by this film. The film does a good job at showing the two types of churches in perestroika (reconstruction era) of Russia. Some Russians didn't want trouble with the government and worshipped the way the government saw fit. Other Christians believed that the athiestic soviet government was not going to orchestrate how they worshipped. They took a stand and were persecuted for it.I put some research into the making of this movie because the quality looks too good for a low budget Chritian film. It turns out that the movie was made by Unusual Studios at Bob Jones University. Many people from the university pitched in to help the studio develop a well made Christian movie.The crew traveled to Russia just before the fall of the Soviet Union to research the film. They then shot scenes in Wisconsin to make the film look as Russian as possible. Interior scenes were shot at the studio, and great efforts were made for authenticity. This was a university led project as all the set helpers and crew members were from the university. The lead actors had experience as speech or theater faculty at the university. All the research I made can be found online at the BJU archives online or at the Greenville, SC library.I would encourage to give the film a chance. I was hooked by the plot, and the story was full of emotion and heart. I enjoyed it very much.

When Bob Jones University decided to make this film to 'expose' the persecution of Christians they made absolutely no attempt with either cast or location to make this even remotely look Russian. The Dneiper River might as well have been the Hackensack River in New Jersey during the winter. Other than a Russian fur hat or two, all the people might have been anything or anywhere it was so generic.Here in Buffalo where I live we have many buildings, church buildings that at least would have given an Eastern European look to the film. Too bad no one took that into consideration. In fact no mention at all is made of the Russian Orthodox church with whom the Soviet government had the kind of relationship it did with the evangelicals shown here.The Printing Press was made in 1990 in those heady years of glass nost with the Soviet Union. We 'won' the Cold War and good people were running Russia. So Bob Jones decided to show what rotten people those Communists were persecuting Christians.I don't minimize that by any means. The Soviet Union didn't like religions of any kind and did persecute people. This is not the story by any means.This cast none of whom you'll know perform at a junior high school play level of acting. Like the scenery their acting suggests nothing about Russia. It doesn't suggest a modicum of talent either.Fast forward to 2017. One of the big props of support for Vladimir Putin's regime is the newly invigorated Russian Orthodox Church who for instance march in lockstep with Protestant evangelicals concerning gays for instance. The persecuted become the persecutors.Now that's history.