Directing Man of God—Yelena Popovic
By Criteria: The Catholic Film Podcast ( bio - articles - email ) | Mar 17, 2022 | In Criteria: The Catholic Film Podcast
Listen to this podcast on: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | RSS feed | YouTube Channel
This is a listener-supported podcast! Thanks for your help!
James and Thomas interview Yelena Popovic, writer and director of the new film Man of God, about the Greek Orthodox saint Nektarios of Aegina. Man of God will be in select theaters in the U.S. on March 21 and 28.
At 17, Yelena left Belgrade, Yugoslavia to escape civil war. She went to Italy and then the US, working as a model in New York City, and then to L.A., where she gained experience and training as an actress, writer and director.
Parallel to this artistic journey was a spiritual one stemming from her lifelong sense of connection with God despite lack of religious education, which ultimately led her to make a film about St. Nektarios.
In this interview Yelena tells her personal story, the story of St. Nektarios, and the extraordinary story of how this film was made—with an outstanding cast and composer secured for her with the help of the monks of Mt. Athos!
Links
Find a showing of Man of God near you http://www.fathomevents.com
Interview with Mickey Rourke about his faith and working on Man of God https://orthochristian.com/133984.html
Our previous review of Man of God https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/review-man-god/
Music is The Duskwhales, “Take It Back”, used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com
Criteria is hosted by Thomas V. Mirus and James T. Majewski.
Thomas is Director of Podcasts for CatholicCulture.org and hosts the Catholic Culture Podcast. See full bio.
James is the Director of Customer Relations for CatholicCulture.org as well as the host and narrator for Catholic Culture Audiobooks. See full bio.
All comments are moderated. To lighten our editing burden, only current donors are allowed to Sound Off. If you are a current donor, log in to see the comment form; otherwise please support our work, and Sound Off!
-
Posted by: mesley8423 -
Mar. 23, 2022 5:16 AM ET USA
I really enjoyed your interview with Yelena and it was very interesting to hear about her own journey of faith ... I hope that we also get to see the film here in the UK fairly soon. As a Greek Catholic (Melkite) is wonderful to me to see an appreciation for a Eastern Orthodox Saint and Orthodox spirituality on a Roman Catholic website. I love St Nektariois' hymn to the Theotokos, Agni Parthene (O Virgin pure, immaculate ...). I would urge your viewers to check out this wonderful composition.
