"Hands that Hold the Sky" will premiere at the "Won Together" Film Festival in Sochi
On September 16, 2026, the Sochi Rodina cinema will host the premiere of the "The Hands that Hold the Sky"" documentary. The event is a part of the XXI Vladimir Menshov International Film Festival "Won Together".
The film "Hands that Hold the Sky" tells about a large-scale project "Shared Cause. The Revival of Wooden Churches in the North", which received the blessing of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia and was awarded the national "Crystal Compass" award.
— Since 1917, the number of churches in the North has decreased from 1,302 to less than 400. Without urgent action, the rest of the legacy could also disappear. Father Alexey Yakovlev and his wife Tatiana visited the Russian North and restored the temple in the village of Vorzogory. This is how the "Shared Cause" project arose. Over the past 19 years, thousands of volunteers from all over the country have joined him: managers, mining engineers, bank employees, and many others. Their personal stories show that such work is not available to "special ascetics", but to the most ordinary people, - the authors of the film say.
Within the project, about 700 expeditions were carried out, 360 monuments of wooden architecture were examined, emergency and conservation work was carried out in 205 churches and chapels, some were completely restored, and liturgies were held in 50 for the first time in decades since the closure.
Russian Geographical Society, the TV company "Under the sign of Pi" and the production center "Chaika" with the support of the Russian Cross Relief Fund made a film about the project.
In Sochi, the film will be presented by general producer Ivan Chaika, director Natalia Mozilova and the main coordinator of the project "Shared Cause. The Revival of the wooden temples of the North" by Lidiya Korchinova.
— This work stands out among other films about the winners of the national award "Crystal Compass". It's about people who not only preserve our cultural heritage, but by their example and their civic position enable others to discover the best facets of their own souls, - said Ivan Chaika, the author of the idea and general producer of the film, chairman of the organizing committee of the national "Crystal Compass" Award.
"Russian Cross" Foundation's participation in this project has become a natural continuation of its selfless mission.
- When young people from different regions of the country come to the North and save churches and chapels shoulder to shoulder, we see how the living history of the ascetics is embodied in concrete deeds and strengthens the trust, respect and inner unity of our multinational people, - says Evgeny Blagov, head of the Russian Cross Charitable Foundation.
The XXI Vladimir Menshov International Film Festival "Won Together" will be held in Moscow and Sochi on September 14 - 24. The event will bring together documentary filmmakers from more than 40 countries and 39 cities of Russia, revealing in their works the themes of victory in various spheres of life, peacemaking, religious tolerance and humanism.
It starts at 19:00.
The organizers of the film festival are the World Peoples Assembly, the Sochi City Administration, the Integration Production Center, the Eurasian Academy of Television and Radio and the Intellectual Resource company with the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation and the World Public Assembly.
"Partners": The Union of Cinematographers of the Russian Federation, the Foundation for the Support of Regional Cinema, the Film School project, RUDN University of Sochi, the Center for Creative Industries of the International Research Institute of Management Problems, the "Memory of Victories" Foundation.
Media partners: Publishing house "Arguments and facts", TV channels OTR, MIR, VGTRK: "Vesti Sochi", IA "Intermedia", portals "Sochi News", "Culture. Literary newspaper", "Utro.ru", IPQuorum, "TV workers", "Network of history", Moviestart.
Additional information is available on the official websites of the Film Festival and the World Peoples Assembly, as well as at media@world-assembly.org.
Accreditation: media@world-assembly.org.