BEYOND THE HILLS (DUPĂ DEALURI) World Cinema

After winning the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2007 for FOUR MONTHS, THREE WEEKS AND TWO DAYS, Cristian Mungiu returns with another strong film about women and self-determination. This time the story is set in a cloistered orthodox community in Moldavia where the nuns are outcasts and runways from a nearby orphanage and women seeking shelter from abusive husbands. The actresses who play two women at the center of this tragic story shared the Best Actress prize at the Cannes Film Festival. Alina (Cristina Flutur) leaves Germany and returns to Romania desperate to free the childhood friend she loves – Voichita (Cosmina Stratan) – from the confines of the archaic beliefs binding the Orthodox nuns to their leader. The Orthodox community interprets Alina’s thirst for freedom as a demonic spirit, threatening to disrupt their austere life. By the film’s tragic end, it appears that Voichita may have found fulfillment and escape, not from the spirit, but from the memories of a romantic past with Alina that haunted her even more.