Allard Detiger

Twenty years after Allard brought back the relationship with his mother to a minimum, the police calls him. They found her in a completely dishevelled house where she can no longer take care of herself. He decides not to abandon her in this state and takes responsibility for her care. Eventually, she ends up in a closed psychiatric ward. In this documentary, she blames her son for everything and wants him to behave like a good son.

The New Saint is a film about Yevgeny Rodionov, an ordinary young Russian boy who fell in the first Chechen war after being taken prisoner and refusing to convert to Islam. He was proclaimed a martyr and many Russians found in Yevgeny their own unofficial saint. The life of Yevgeny’s mother underwent a radical change when her child ‘became’ a saint. By campaigning for his canonisation she keeps the memory of her son alive. The success of her mission is illustrated by the portrayal of Yevgeny’s image on icons throughout the country. Who is this holy soldier exactly and what makes him the perfect icon of Russia today?

Twenty years after Allard brought back the relationship with his mother to a minimum, the police calls him. They found her in a completely dishevelled house where she can no longer take care of herself. He decides not to abandon her in this state and takes responsibility for her care. Eventually, she ends up in a closed psychiatric ward. In this documentary, she blames her son for everything and wants him to behave like a good son.

The New Saint is a film about Yevgeny Rodionov, an ordinary young Russian boy who fell in the first Chechen war after being taken prisoner and refusing to convert to Islam. He was proclaimed a martyr and many Russians found in Yevgeny their own unofficial saint. The life of Yevgeny’s mother underwent a radical change when her child ‘became’ a saint. By campaigning for his canonisation she keeps the memory of her son alive. The success of her mission is illustrated by the portrayal of Yevgeny’s image on icons throughout the country. Who is this holy soldier exactly and what makes him the perfect icon of Russia today?