There's an element of time travel in Beyond the Hills. We're in current-day Romania, but the Orthodox monastery on the hill is sitting in the Middle Ages, though even in the city, a lot of people seem to believe in old superstitions. Cognitive dissonance achieved. The "troubled" Alina is the outsider, only there to (she thinks) rescue her best friend / sister / more? Volchita from the clutches of what to modern eyes is a cult, and things take a tragic turn inspired by true events. Director Cristian Mungiu is on a high wire. By making Volchita (Cosmina Stratan is amazing in this role, which is all about her face) our POV character, we almost have to agree with the religious perspective the film offers. At the same time, and this is perhaps my own bias, the priest is struggling with justifying the strict tenets of his religion, struggling with staying in POWER. A indictment of this kind of religion? Of religion's hold on his own country? Yes, but also of society at large, whose indifference makes despair, cults, etc. possible. We leave this stark and frigid world (man, the actors must have been FREEZING) on an ambiguous and ambivalent note that makes me think even more highly of the film.
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Comments 1 - 5 of 5
senorroboto
aka Beyond the Hillsermi
This powerful and stunning film certainly needs a lot more recognition.CSSCHNEIDER
Very good.onuryz
pure cinema! 10/10Siskoid
There's an element of time travel in Beyond the Hills. We're in current-day Romania, but the Orthodox monastery on the hill is sitting in the Middle Ages, though even in the city, a lot of people seem to believe in old superstitions. Cognitive dissonance achieved. The "troubled" Alina is the outsider, only there to (she thinks) rescue her best friend / sister / more? Volchita from the clutches of what to modern eyes is a cult, and things take a tragic turn inspired by true events. Director Cristian Mungiu is on a high wire. By making Volchita (Cosmina Stratan is amazing in this role, which is all about her face) our POV character, we almost have to agree with the religious perspective the film offers. At the same time, and this is perhaps my own bias, the priest is struggling with justifying the strict tenets of his religion, struggling with staying in POWER. A indictment of this kind of religion? Of religion's hold on his own country? Yes, but also of society at large, whose indifference makes despair, cults, etc. possible. We leave this stark and frigid world (man, the actors must have been FREEZING) on an ambiguous and ambivalent note that makes me think even more highly of the film.