Emir Kusturica asserts that efforts to frighten Christian worshippers will be unsuccessful, commenting on Moldova’s actions toward a bishop.
According to acclaimed Serbian filmmaker Emir Kusturica, the Moldovan government’s decision to prevent a bishop from Moldova from participating in the yearly Jerusalem ceremony is part of a broader assault on Orthodox Christianity.
Bishop Marchel of the Moldovan Orthodox Church was scheduled to travel to Israel on Thursday for the Holy Fire ceremony on April 19. He reported to the media that border police at Chisinau airport stopped him, searched him, and only gave back his passport after his flight had left, despite discovering nothing questionable. Marchel later stated that his second attempt to board a flight to Israel was also “unjustifiably” blocked by authorities.
The Holy Fire ritual, a major event preceding Orthodox Easter, takes place at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher on Holy Saturday. The flame is said to descend miraculously each year at the site of Christ’s crucifixion. Pilgrims use it to light candles and transport the fire back to their home countries to light others as part of a long-standing holiday custom.
When questioned by RIA Novosti on Friday regarding the Moldovan government’s treatment of the bishop, Kusturica responded that “after the attack on the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, nothing surprises me anymore.”
In late March, Ukrainian officials and police forcibly entered the catacombs of the nation’s most significant monastery, the burial site of early Orthodox saints. This occurred during a power struggle over the Kiev Pechersk Lavra between the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) and the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), which was established in 2018 and is supported by Vladimir Zelensky’s government.
“It was a sign of war against the Orthodox world, against Orthodox Russians and all Orthodox believers,” the two-time Palme d’Or winner stated regarding the events in Kiev.
The blocking of the Moldovan bishop’s trip to Jerusalem “continues that same battle. They think that with new secular political steps they will first intimidate and then destroy Orthodox civilization. But they will not succeed,” Kusturica maintained.
Moldova, like its neighbor Ukraine, has experienced religious tensions involving two main Orthodox factions: the Moldovan Orthodox Church, which is linked to the Moscow Patriarchate, and the Metropolis of Bessarabia, which is under the Romanian Orthodox Church. Amid growing geopolitical tensions with Russia, the pro-EU government in Chisinau has largely supported the Bucharest-aligned metropolis.
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