Rainer Sarnet's film "The Invisible Fight" ("Nähtamatu võitlus") took no fewer than nine awards, including best picture at the recent Estonian Film and Theater Awards (EFTA). To those who have not yet seen the film, it comes heartily recommended. The decidedly original work successfully combines Russian Orthodox propaganda with the aesthetics of B-category kung fu movies, black metal music and Soviet nostalgia.

"The Invisible Fight" makes for educational, fun and deeply heartwarming viewing. It even rekindled my dormant interest in religion and a measure of nostalgia over having attended church in my youth. More so because while the Orthodox monks in the film are being persecuted by the authorities, they're in excellent spiritual and physical form and make short work of putting the Soviet-era secular powers back in their place using their kung fu skills.

Director Sarnet managed to recruit Estonia's best-known Orthodox actors Indrek Sammul and Rain Simmul whose roles are positively beaming with the sincere joy of being given the chance to portray their faith. That said, the monks in Sarnet's picture do not possess remarkable kung fu skills because it looks cool or helps captivate the audience. Rather, the martial art here serves as an allegory for the perpetual fight between good and evil raging within the monks.

Both the beggar played by Simmul and the abbot portrayed by Sammul are fighting that sacred fight on their respective sides of the monastery's walls. The monks' preparedness to fight symbolizes a religious person's readiness to face inner controversies and crises head on, making difficult decisions where needed.

Considering the general level of caution regarding anything to do with Russia these days, I'm glad to report that both film critics and the audience have welcomed Sarnet's wise, but still provocative film with open arms. In addition to the film awards, "The Invisible Fight" also won best picture of the Estonian Cultural Endowment.

Sarnet's EFTA awards bonanza took place just three days before the Russian World People's Council and its chairman Patriarch Kirill declared a holy war on the West and questioned Estonia's sovereignty in a statement from March 27. This was soon followed by Estonian Minister of the Interior Lauri Läänemets' (SDE) initiative to declare the Moscow Patriarchate an organization supporting terrorism and for the congregations of the Estonian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (MPEÕK) to sever ties with the latter.

Open political and economic cooperation between Kirill's Moscow Patriarchate and the Kremlin's secular powers is not news of course. The Kremlin has been knowingly promoting a death cult for the past few years, and while Patriarch Kirill may still be the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, he has also committed to a plethora of side activities during his career at the church, including as a KGB operative, a millionaire oligarch and recently the head priest of the Kremlin's military-politial death cult.

While the patriarch's choices do not directly incriminate congregations active in Estonia, they do cast a shadow. Everyone the least bit in touch with free media knows what the Moscow Patriarchate is doing.

The fact that the Moscow patriarch has decided to also become a politician is his choice. The fact that he also plays politics during religious services and on church premises opens his actions up to political criticism.

The politics played by Moscow Patriarch Kirill are international. The Russian Orthodox Church's network has been used in the service of the Kremlin's political goals in many counties. Patriarch Kirill has voluntary surrendered his religious freedom to Vladimir Putin and was even warned by the Pope in Rome in May of 2022 not to position himself as "Putin's altar boy." Kirill decided not to heed that advice.

In some ways, we are all victims of the patriarch's poor judgement also in Estonia. Even Orthodox Bishop Daniel, who the Internal Security Service (ISS) say is serving as the replacement of Metropolitan Eugene, after the latter meddled in Estonian politics and was effectively expelled as a result, tentatively admitted as much to Vilja Kiisler in an interview.

Positioning oneself as the victim is also a wise move whenever one needs to protect oneself from secular pressure. Metropolitan Eugene has already ordered the organization in Estonia to remain loyal to Moscow.

Bishop Daniel demonstrated considerable political skill when he suggested that he does not agree with Patriarch Kirill's choices, admitting the head of the church is wrong, while trying to isolate the political activism of its head from the church, a religious leader's moral convictions from their faith.

However, the politically fundamentalist statement of the patriarch from March 27 cannot be seen separately from the patriarchate's past cooperation with Putin. Moreover, it is not just a question of the March 27 statement, which one would expect Bishop Daniel to explain in more detail, but also of the Moscow Patriarchate's longstanding cooperation with Putin and lending the Kremlin's aggressive secular power resources and influence, next to other religious activities.

It is too soon to speculate as to Bishop Daniel's next move. As the bishop told a journalist, these things take time. The interior minister has promised to grant that time. The bishop is representing the interests of his nonprofit, and it is possible that we'll never know the inner kung fu of his heart.

However, what the public debate could reflect are the opinions of Orthodox practitioners in Estonia. And this also goes for Rain Simmul and Indrek Sammul who do such a brilliant job of advertising the inner kung fu of the Russian Orthodox faith and one's invisible struggle for one's soul in the film.

All manner of canonical aspects aside, as an ordinary person wouldn't be able to understand them anyway, please enlighten us as to how it is possible to serve Christ with a clear conscience under a religious leader who has surrendered their religious freedom and chosen the politician's path while promoting a fundamentalist death cult. And what would denouncing an episcopacy that has forsaken the faith even have to do with religious freedom?

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