There is the Roman Catholic Church in Magadan. I went there with my colleagues - two German filmmakers. It was cold and snowing. The church was not open. We knocked on the door.
Fifty years old man in a gray robe with a hood met us. The front of his robe was embroidered red cross. It was not even a cross, but rather a hybrid of two symbols - the cross and heart. He spoke to us in English with a clean American accent. Father Michael Shields originally from Alaska. He lives in Magadan for twenty years already.
Father Michael was about a quarter Russian and three-quarters American. I asked him about the difference and similarity of Russian and Americans mentality. He said that Russian people are trying to help each other. Russian can give his last shirt to help another. This is a positive thing. It's collective way of thinking. Americans are individualists. The reverse side of this phenomenon is that dictatorship can not exist in the US, for example. He said that he could not even imagine Putin as president of the United States. Father Michael also said that Putin does not care about the people. He just realized his own ambitions.
Then I asked, "What is your goal now? Mission?". He replied: "I want to die here ... I mean I'm not going to die now. But I do not want to go somewhere or to travel. I traveled a lot around the world before, because we were looking for money for our church. Now I just reached the age when I need to start to prepare myself for "another world"".
This church was founded to help former prisoners of the camps. Father Michael confessed many of them. Most of them have died already because of old age and disease. They told him many stories about how people lived and worked in the camps. For example, while working outside in minus 50, the problem was that clothes soaked the sweat. Then this moisture freezes. During the night clothes did not have time to dry. So nest day they wore wet clothes and went to work agane. Michael Shields hopes, that one day someone will make epic movie in Hollywood about these people. Something like "The Pianist".
The second time we met him when he decided to help us get to the ruins of the former prison. The road took about fifteen minutes, but we had a time to talk a bit:
- I saw a Russian woman in the church last time. Does she work there? - asked my German colleague Christian.
- She was a prostitute. Then she came to the church and found God.
- There are many prostitutes in Magadan?
- Yes, quite. Usually they move to the city from nearby villages. Prostitution gives them good money, but they lose the soul, of course.
We arrived. Father Michael showed us the building of the former prison. He had already been there. But this time fat and sleepy cop came out of the patrol house. He said that we can't be here, because it is the police property. We need permission from the chief of police. He also said that it never was a prison. That is let us know that he does not even know that he guards. The Germans said that police and security guards are very harsh and unpleasant in Russia. Later with the help of a local journalist I tried to get the permission of the chief of Police, but our formal request dissolved in the Russian bureaucratic mire...
The third time we met Michael before our flight back to Moscow. We came to the church to print our plane tickets. Father Michael had just finished his work. He was drinking cocoa from yellow mug. I made a couple of shots in the cabinet of Father Michael.
Father Michael has blessed us and said again, that he hopes one day someone will make Hollywood blockbuster about Stalin's camps.
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