BEYOND THE HILLS

Alina (Cristina Flutur) returns from Germany to Romania to fetch Voichița (Cosmina Stratan). The two grew up together in an orphanage and were everything to each other; now Alina wants her to leave with her and find work. But Voichița is by now a novice in a remote Orthodox convent in the hills, and she is not willing to leave her faith and the community. Alina stays to change her mind, and the more desperate she becomes, the more the priest and nuns read her desperation as something that must be exorcised. “Beyond the Hills” by Cristian Mungiu, Romania 2012, is based on a case that caused a nationwide scandal in 2005 and which the journalist Tatiana Niculescu Bran reconstructed in two books.

Mungiu tells the story in long, unwavering shots, without music, without judgement; the convent’s iconography and the workings of an institution that no longer distinguishes care from coercion interlock. The film screened in competition at Cannes in 2012, where Cristina Flutur and Cosmina Stratan shared the award for best actress; Romania submitted it for the Oscar race. The film was shown at Around the World in 14 Films in Berlin in 2012.

Shown at the 2012 edition of Around the World in 14 Films.

All films 2012 · Film Archive