Bells from the Deep: Faith and Superstition in Russia

In February 1993, Herzog travelled to Siberia to explore Russia’s mysticism and spiritual life after the fall of communism. 

The film is divided into two chapters: the first focuses on mythical figures, such as a Russian healer and a man who, like Jesus, believes himself to be the reincarnation of God; the second, on the myth of the lost city Kitezh told by a local priest and by the pilgrims who visit the site where God supposedly sank the city to protect it from the Mongols.

Without intending to be an ethnographic documentary, Bells from the deep: Faith and Superstition in Russia is more of a poetic manifestation of what director Werner Herzog believes to be truthful than, as the title suggests, a factual film about faith and superstition in Russia.