Direction: Yelena Popovic
Country: Greece
Man of God chronicles the life of Saint Nectarios of Aegina from 1889, when he was serving as a bishop in Cairo, until his death from prostate cancer on the Greek island of Aegina in 1920. He lived all his life piously, only being posthumously declared a saint by the Greek Orthodox Church in 1961. Popular among the faithful and persecuted by jealous colleagues and superiors, this holy man was convicted without a trial, unjustly exiled, and later accused of immorality while running a convent of nuns.
Spiritual inspiration and benevolence in opposition to conspiracy mar the biopic with an irresistible premise, but, unfortunately, the sophomore Serbian writer-director Yelena Popovic was unable to match the beauty of it on the screen, failing in every aspect. Man of God suffers from slowdowns, uneven transitions in time, unnatural scenes spoken in Greek-accented English, and some naivety in the proceedings. Even providing us with an opportunity to know more about this remarkable Greek Orthodox saint, Popovic struggled all the way with blandness and never found the key to rehabilitate the clerical figure in question. There was obviously much more to this man.
Aris Servetalis, who plays Nectarios, has been delivering terrific performances in his still short career - Alps (2011), The Waiter (2018), Apples (2020) - but this particular role didn't allow him to shine. Mickey Rourke, curiously listed second in the film’s acting credits, has a brief four-minute appearance as a paralyzed man. While the film's goal is to pay homage to Saint Nectarios, it never goes beyond stilted representation. The narrative plummets with its conventional tone, and then the whole film with its stiff formality.
