The Requiem by Anton Chekhov. Short summary

5 seconds

A memorial service is held in church for the daughter of a shopkeeper who became an actress. Because of her profession, her father thought she was a harlot. The priest scolded the shopkeeper for his sinful thoughts.

1 minute

In the village church, the local shopkeeper Andrei Andreich is in no hurry to leave the church and looks at the icons. He notices an angry Father Gregory. He blinks sternly at the shopkeeper.

Andrei Andreich approaches the shopkeeper and scolds him. In a note about the memorial service for the repose of the soul of his daughter Maria, he calls the deceased a harlot.

Andrei Andreich tries to object that his daughter was an artist. But Father Grigory explains that he cannot call anyone that, much less his daughter, to whom all her sins should be forgiven after her death.

The funeral service begins. Andrei Andreich recalls that he did not notice how his daughter grew up. Three years before her death, she came to her father and informed him that she had become an actress.

He was ashamed of her work. His daughter called him for a walk and cried, admiring the beauty of her native land.

Smoke streams from the censer and it seems that the soul of the deceased is spinning with it.