Cyril and Methodius - The Apostles of the Slavs

Saint Cyril and Methodius, brothers, Byzantines, born in th IX century are known in history as the Christian missionaries. Their deeds considerably influenced to the cultural development of all Slav nations, which earned them the title of the Apostles of the Slavs. In order to spread the Christianity among Slavic nations in their own language they created the new script called ’’glagoljica’’ – the first Slav alphabet, to be used for translation of the Holy Bible and the religious books. This was the reason why the Church equalled them to the Saints. Thus they created the first Slav literary language and the base of Slav literature. Because of their significance for the Christianity, they have a date both in the orthodix and catholic calendars and they are celebrated as the Saints protectors of Europe.

Brothers Cyril (Constantine is his wordly name) and Methodius grew up in Thessaloniki, the city surrounded by Slavs at that time. They were educated at the Byzantine Court. Due to their knowledge of the Slav language the Byzantine emperor Mihail sent them as his emissaries to Moravia upon the request of the Moravian Duke Rastislav. He asked the help from Byzant fearing the influence of the missionary priests sent by German emperor Ludwig. On their way to Moravia they earned many influential enemies who insisted upon religious preaching in three languages. But they also earned a lot of followers who continued their mission on the territory of today’s Macedonia, Serbia. Montenegro and costal parts of Croatia. In honour of his famous teachers, one of their scolars, Clement, made a new alphabet called CYRILLIC in use up today.

This drama is made on the occasion of the 1150th anniversary of their work to celebrate an immortalize their work and significance. Except for the size of this project, this film is also i mportant because both orthodox and catholic church, as well as many Slav institutions, helped its creation. Its quality and historical accuracy is guaranteed by unselfish and expert help of renowned historians and representatives of the church.

The film was shot on locations in Chech Republic, Slovakia, Italy, Turkey and Cyprus.

Director Petr Nikolaev was born in Prague where he graduated at the Acedemy of Arts. With his exceptional work he attracted the attention already with his student projects when he became the first winner of the Award ’’Maxim’’ in the history of the Academy. In his career he worked in France, where he, among others, directed the educational programs.

’’Cyril and Methodius’’ is his seventh full-length film.