A pustyn is by definition a place set apart, and this one stands in open country south of Moscow, its white walls and coloured domes rising straight out of farmland - near enough to the capital for a steady flow of pilgrims, far enough to keep its own silence. The film follows the enclosure at the pace of the community that lives there: the churches gathered inside the walls, the bell tower, the refectory, the gardens and workshops that make a monastery a self-sufficient world, and the cycle of services that begins before dawn. Closed and repurposed under Soviet rule, the hermitage was returned to the Church and has been patiently restored since. Shot in 4K with aerial coverage of the enclosure in its landscape, it suits sacred-heritage strands, religious-affairs programming and contemplative slots.
