Ivan Okhlobystin

Ivan Okhlobystin is a Russian actor, screenwriter, and film director who was ordained as a Russian Orthodox priest and later left active priestly service.

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The Down House: A 2001 Russian comedy film loosely adapting Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Idiot. Okhlobystin wrote and starred in this irreverent adaptation, one of his best-known films.
Pavel Lungin: A Russian film director and screenwriter known for films including Taxi Blues and The Island. Lungin directed several films featuring Okhlobystin, including The Wedding.
Moscow Film School: A colloquial name for Moscow’s State Institute of Cinematography, a major Russian film-training institution. Okhlobystin studied directing at VGIK, where his film education began.
LGBT rights in Russia: The legal status and social conditions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in Russia. Okhlobystin faced public criticism after making hostile statements about gay people.
Interns: A Russian medical sitcom that aired from 2010 to 2016. Okhlobystin played Andrey Bykov, the sardonic senior physician who became his most widely recognized television role.
Nikita Mikhalkov: A Russian film director, actor, and producer whose career spans Soviet and post-Soviet cinema. Mikhalkov’s filmmaking milieu overlapped with Okhlobystin’s early work as a screenwriter and actor.
VGIK: The Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography, a Moscow university specializing in film and television arts. Okhlobystin graduated from its directing program in 1992.
Russian presidential election: The process by which Russia elects its president under the country’s electoral system. His announced 2011 candidacy drew attention, but authorities ruled him ineligible because of his priestly ordination.
The House of Fools: A 2002 Russian film directed by Andrei Konchalovsky, set in a psychiatric hospital during the Chechen conflict. Okhlobystin appeared in this ensemble film, which received the Special Jury Prize at Venice.
Patriarch Kirill of Moscow: The head of the Russian Orthodox Church since 2009. Kirill’s 2010 decision to release Okhlobystin from priestly duties formalized his return to secular work.