RYNA International Feature Competition

Ryna has been trapped in an impoverished Romanian village for 16 years with a father who forces her to dress like the son he has always wanted, certain this will keep her from ever becoming a woman.

Then, one day, a young Frenchman’s car breaks down a few miles from her father’s gas station and Ryna is the only person in town who speaks French. Ryna has always been an outsider herself-she works for her father as a mechanic but longs to be a photographer. Ryna’s flirtations with the Frenchman and the postman — whom she meets secretly by the roadside-are innocent, but they stir unseen violence.

The film’s warm light and sepia tones beautifully convey the magic world struggling with modernity and a young woman’s coming-of-age.