This one seems to be widely liked by "the faithful", and has probably won the most awards of all the director's films. In his interview, the director said that he thought this was the first "truly Orthodox" Russian animated film, but I wouldn't say that. Excellent earlier examples include Yuletide Stories (1994) and The Nativity (1996). But it may well be the first Russian animated film made by someone who was so closely tied to the Russian Orthodox Church, having previously given up animation for many years to do icon painting and illustration. I mean, there were previous examples... famously, Pilot Studio's Yuriy Pronin left secular life behind to paint icons and restore churches mid-way through production of Exhibition in 1995, forcing studio head Aleksandr Tatarskiy to complete his film for him. Yuriy Norshteyn's son became an icon painter. But this is probably the first example of someone coming back from that to animation, and bringing everything he learned with him to inform his film.

I think that the artwork is generally quite well-done, and the CGI-parts are mixed in with the rest decently well. Also, the various demons are quite creatively drawn!

The prayer of the ascetic in the middle section of the film (which you can hear only partly) is still not translated. If anyone can find the original source, please let me know.