Beyond the Hills (Dupa Dealuri – original title)

Language: Romanian 
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.