Almost Holy (15, 96 mins, ★★★★) is a documentary about a very unorthodox Ukrainian pastor.
Gennadiy Mokhnenko has run Pilgrim, a residential home for children in Mariupol, since 1998. Many of the kids in his care are drug addicts and most of them have been forcibly removed from the streets or squalid homes. To the youngsters, Pastor Gennadiy is both a caring father figure and a terrifying boot camp sergeant. He’s also a charismatic media personality and an unapologetic vigilante.
The moral conundrum at the film’s heart, about Gennadiy’s determination to take the law into his own hands, is discomfiting enough, but director Steve Hoover ratchets up the tension with the addition of a discordant score and by contrasting grainy camcorder footage of blank-faced, damaged children at Pilgrim and artfully composed cinematic images, such as Gennadiy diving into the sea.
