COSMINA STRATAN

BEYOND THE HILLS (2013)
Starring Cristina Flutur and Cosmina Stratan. Directed by Cristian Mungiu.

Voichita and Alina grew up together in an orphanage and the two girls were family for each other since first grade. At 19, Alina was taken in by a foster family and later decided to go and work in Germany, while Voichita found refuge in an Orthodox monastery and became a nun - there she found not only God but the family she’d never had. Feeling sick and estranged, Alina strives to get Voichita back in her life, and visits the monastery in order to convince her childhood friend to leave the Church.

Voichita asks permission to leave the monastery temporarily, but the Priests answer is firm: once you have taken the path of Christ there can be no comings or goings. Voichita is not prepared to abandon her newly found peace, while Alina is baffled by her decision: what on earth happened to the girl she knew? She starts fighting with all her strength to get Voichita back, but God is the most difficult lover of whom to be jealous - and soon the inhabitants of the monastery start to suspect something evil in this force that animates Alina.