Transformation of the Archaic Myth and the Discourse of Power in Alexander Sokurov’s “Moloch”

The essay analyses the transformation of the myth in the work of Alexander Sokurov, specifically in his biographical drama ‘‘Moloch’’. The author explores the mythology of the mountain in German culture, relating it to the neo-mythology constructed in Sokurov’s film. The focus of the essay is the image of Kehlsteinhaus as the embodiment of the mythological Asgard, which is assigned to the future. Most important components of the phenomenon of Nazism — mythological dreams of the Thousand-Year Reich, the Kingdom of the righteous — are born here. According to the author, we see again a variation on Sokurov’s main theme of man’s loneliness and orphanhood. However, this theme is revealed in “Moloch” in an unexpected manner: the consciousness of the unfortunate, for whom Sokurov usually feels compassion, becomes a fertile ground for Nazism. This is a starting point for transforming Yuri Arabov’s screenplay ‘‘Mystery of the Mountain’’ into Alexander Sokurov’s film ‘‘Moloch’’.

Pagan Moloch becomes the central image of the new Nazi mythology (as interpreted by Sokurov). The essay’s author analyzes three incarnations of this image. One is Adolf Hitler himself, the most unfortunate person who, at the same time, is happy with his own misfortune and who takes within the mountain world the position of Wotan, demanding more and more victims. In Sokurov’s film, Hitler is a miserable and whimsical God, possessed by many phobias. The second incarnation of the Godhead is ideological: the idea of a great Germany, a Thousand-Year Reich to which millions are sacrificed, including the ‘‘inhabitants of heaven’’ themselves. At the heart of this idea is the ancient harmony talked about by Hitler: a rational and harmonious world that requires the destruction of everything not corresponding to its nature. Only such purified, cold beauty and perfection, coupled with the ethical qualities of the Supreme Being, have the right to existence. The Third incarnation is entropy, Moloch’s main hypostasis. Sokurov shows it primarily in the form of phobias which bring about death and are the starting points for the creation of the coldest of harmonies.