The Monastery: Mr. Vig and the Nun

Directed and Photographed by Pernille Rose Grønkjær

 

Review by Rachel Royan

 

Pernille Rose Grønkjær describes her beautifully shot, award-winning documentary, “The Monastery: Mr. Vig and the Nun,” as a “fairytale.” It tells the story of Mr. Vig, an 82-year-old Danish man whose lifelong dream is to turn his now-dilapidated Hesbjerg Castle into a monastery. After a meeting with the Moscow Patriarch, a team of Russian Orthodox nuns led by the very efficient Sister Ambrosija is sent to survey the castle. Mr. Vig hastily prepares for their arrival, excited and desperate to please. When they arrive, the nuns approve of the castle but insist on extensive repairs, which Mr. Vig persists in patching up himself. Sister Ambrosija and the other nuns oversee the repairs, and Mr. Vig soon finds that they are nothing like the docile, compliant nuns he imagined them to be.

 

Twisted Sister: Mr. Vig takes abuse from a tough nun in “The Monastery.”

 

Mr. Vig presents a striking picture with his shock of white hair and straight nose. An ex-parish priest and former librarian, he has never married and by his own admission, “doesn’t really like people.” Mr. Vig is old fashioned and set in his ways, but also highly educated and quite cosmopolitan. His handmade bookshelves are overflowing with volumes in Danish, Italian, French and Hindu, and he proudly shows off his opium bed from China to the appalled Sister Ambrosija who proclaims it a “bad bed.” The perfect foil, Sister Ambrosija is determinedly opinionated, unflagging in her faith and genuinely committed to turning the run-down old castle into a modern, functional monastery. Speaking correct but halting English to each other, the two clash on numerous issues. The old bachelor nonetheless seems to enjoy Sister Ambrosija’s company, and she is in turn attentive to his well-being, cooking for him and forcing him to attend church — even though he nods off to sleep soon after.

 

Grønkjær’s beautiful cinematography and a musical score by Johan Söderqvist set off this touching story. Sweeping long shots of the picturesque castle and Danish countryside give an otherworldly feel to a documentary that Grønkjær has crafted with obvious affection. When prodded by Grønkjær about his reasons for creating a monastery, Mr. Vig astutely tells her that he, like she as a filmmaker, seeks to “create something enduring.”