Genre: Drama
Length: 150
Director: Cristian Mungiu
Writer: Cristian Mungiu based on Tatiana Niculescu Bran’s nonfiction book Deadly Confession and Judges.
Cast: Cosmina Stratan, Cristina Flutur, Valeriu Andruita
Plot
Voichita
and Alina grew up together in an orphanage in Romania, as well as being
companions they were also lovers. But
when they leave the orphanage Alina travels to Germany to work. Soon she finds herself unbearably lonely, and
returns to Romania to visit and bring Voichita back to Germany with her so they
can both work on a cruise ship. However,
when Alina arrives she discovers that Voichita has given herself to God, joined
a convent and intends to takes vows as a nun. Voichita asks the priest to let
Alina stay at the convent, so Alina rooms with Voichita but the latter will not
continue their previous intimate relationship.
Alina sees the Priest a romantic
threat and she increasingly becomes violent and harms both herself and the
nuns. Unable to find satisfactory
medical help the nuns and the priest, who think Alina is possessed, chain her
to a board to protect Alina from herself. Finally Voichita begins to question the
church and priest, and sets Alina free, but it may already be too late.
Review
Art house
realism, very long, dark, stark, sad, cold, and for all that watchable. Just. It’s the will they, won’t they love
story around the two main protagonist that only just pushes the film along. But ultimately the filmmaker could have told that
story and made his argument surrounding the state of religion in Romanian
society in half the time.
The film is
based on a non-fiction book which documents the case of a young woman who dies
during an exorcism, and the film uses this to explores the tensions between the
secular and religious : the former knowledgeable but lacking in compassion the
latter ignorant but kind.
Statan
(Voichita) and Flutur (Alina) shared the best actress award at Cannes (2012) for their
low key realist performances, and Mungiu won for best screenplay. The film was
also nominated for the Palme D’Or.
Ultimately an interesting watch if you have the time and like to be reminded how shit life can be.
Budget: Low
budget, shot in nine weeks in Bucharest during the winter. Mungiu is well
known for his 2007 film 4 months, 3 weeks, 2 days also low budget.
3 out of 5
stars.
