Beyond the Hills

A film set in a monastery in Romania. Alina comes back from Germany. She comes to see Voichita, who grew up in the same orphanage, and wants to take her away. Voichita is now at the monastery. She lives with a priest and a few nuns; there is no electricity, the heating is a stove, and the rules are strict. Alina stays. She cannot adjust, she becomes angry, and she starts having seizures. She is taken to hospital. The doctors keep her for a while and send her back; there is no room, she is given medication and left at the monastery. From there the film is a story of helplessness. The priest decides this is not an illness but something else, and the community applies a remedy. What the narrative is interested in is not faith but a gap: nobody in the film means harm; the state, the hospital, the police and the church are each insufficient in turn, and the girl falls through. The Voichita line is the real matter. The bond between the two women is never stated, and the film carries it less as a secret than as an impossibility. The camera uses long takes. There are few cuts, no music, and the scenes run at their real length. The last scene takes place in a police car and ends with a splash of mud. The source is real. An incident at a Romanian monastery in 2005 that ended in a young woman's death was documented in books by the journalist Tatiana Niculescu Bran, and the film rests on that source. The film won Best Screenplay at Cannes; its two leads shared the Best Actress prize. Cosmina Stratan, Cristina Flutur and Valeriu Andriuță are in the cast. Cristian Mungiu wrote and directed. Who it is for: anyone who likes slow, hard Romanian cinema. Who it is not for: anyone looking for pace and music; the film runs two and a half hours and helps you nowhere.