Black Monk: 1 hr. 18 min. 59 sec.

The most extensive part of the work of ANTON PAVLOVIČ ČECHOV (1860-1904) consists of short stories. He wrote five hundred of them. Not all of them are as famous as his six plays, but a large number of them are still translated and re-translated and read in various collections all over the world. This includes the Black Monk.

The author wrote it in 1893, not long after he bought a country farm with fields, ponds, orchard and forests in Melichov for himself and his family. According to the memories of his brother Mikhail, they once watched a sunset together, wondered how a mirage was created, and fantasized about whether one could mirror itself forever and wander through the universe...

The initial idea for the story was born. And the setting of the Pesotsky country estate, with its vast orchard and flower beds, where its hero Kovrin comes to give rest to his frayed nerves, in some ways mirrors the setting of Melichov, where Chekhov hoped to find peace for his literary work. However, a shadow soon falls over the idyll. Doctor Chekhov can recognize the symptoms of tuberculosis in himself, just as his master Kovrin can recognize his madness in the fate of the black monk. In Kovrin's final spouting of blood, Chekhov unwittingly anticipated the shape of his death.