I have read the lives of many ascetics and the images of the main character are based on Theophilus of the Caves and Sebastian of Karaganda."

There were four expeditions: the film crew traveled through the Murmansk Oblast, visited Ladoga, Onega, Kizhi, and the Pskov lakes.

"[2] During the fifth trip, nature was found — it was the outskirts of the small settlement of Rabocheostrovsk on the White Sea coast in Karelia.

[2] According to Pavel Lungin, the main actor Pyotr Mamonov "played himself to a large extent."

[2] In addition, Hieromonk Cosmas (Afanasyev), a resident of the Donskoy Monastery, was with the film crew as a consultant, who was invited by Mamonov.

According to Hieromonk Cosmas: "There was little time allocated: all the filming was compressed into 40 days, since the budget was more than modest.

The locals have already dragged out all the boats so that the ice does not bind them, and the temperature was acceptable... Only at the end, when they were shooting the last scene (where Father Anatoly chastises the demoniac), suddenly it snowed.

And this artistically turned out to be a very accurate accent, symbolizing purification – the renewal of the life of a person previously enslaved by the dark force.

"[6] In 2007, director Pavel Lungin said about the filming process: "We lived ... on the outskirts of a working village in a small empty hotel.

The scene where Nastya and her father Tikhon are going on a train was filmed at the Rizhsky railway station in Moscow.

[4] During World War II, the sailor Anatoly and his captain, Tikhon, are captured by the Germans when they board their barge and tugboat, which is carrying a shipment of coal.

The Germans blow up the ship but Anatoly is found by Russian Orthodox monks on the shore the next morning.

Monks, one carrying a large cross representing the risen Christ, are seen rowing the coffin away from the island.

The film is focused on father Anatoly's repentance of his sin (therefore the virtually continuous occurrence of the Jesus Prayer); but the transgressions of the depicted character (a fool for Christ) and their impact on the others are the means by which the actual plot develops.

The film's director, Lungin, speaking of the central character's self-awareness, said he does not regard him as being clever or spiritual, but blessed "in the sense that he is an exposed nerve, which connects to the pains of this world.

"[1] Pyotr Mamonov, who plays the lead character, formerly one of the few rock musicians in the USSR, converted to Eastern Orthodoxy in the 1990s and lived in an isolated village until his death, in 2021.

[1] The former Patriarch of Moscow, Alexei II (who held the office from 1990–2008), praised Ostrov for its profound depiction of faith and monastic life, calling it a "vivid example of an effort to take a Christian approach to culture.

[9] Derek Adams of Time Out described the film as "both heartfelt and ultimately optimistic" in a generally positive review.

[10] Wesley Morris, writing for The Boston Globe, gave the film 2 and a half stars, called the film "an aggravating combination of piousness, arty self-pity, and knowing silliness meant to speak to higher spiritual truths".