Synopsis
Alina returns to Romania from Germany, hoping to bring Voichita—the only person in the world she loves and was loved by—back with her. But Voichita has found God, and God is the hardest lover of all to best.
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Cast
- Cosmina StratanVoichita
- Cristina FluturAlina
- Valeriu AndriuțăPriest
- Dana TapalagăMother superior
- Cătălina HarabagiuAntonia
- Gina Tanduranun Iustina
- Vica Agachenun Elisabeta
- Nora Covali
- Luminița GheorghiuSchoolteacher
- Dionisie VitcuMr. Valerica
Recommendations
- 90
Village Voice
The haunting final image suggests how quickly such stories can be lost...which makes Beyond the Hills, above all else, a powerful and necessary act of reclamation. - 88
Slant Magazine
It's Cristian Mungiu's staging and compositional skill that lends the material its true sense of dawning dread. - 83
The Playlist
Deceivingly complex, with an emotional center that peels away like an onion the longer it unfolds, this is a powerful effort from Mungiu in which love and faith are both different kinds of poison. - 80
The Guardian
Enthralling, mysterious and intimately upsetting – a terrible demonstration of how poverty creates a space which irrational fear must fill. - 80
Total Film
Arduous yet always absorbing, Cristian Mungiu’s first full-length feature since 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days is inspired by a real-life case of a tragically botched exorcism in rural Romania. - 80
Time Out
As in his much-lauded "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days," the latest feature from Palme d’Or–winning filmmaker Cristian Mungiu takes a rigorous approach to the material. But where the previous film — about two women seeking a back-alley abortion — was a reductively dour slog, Beyond the Hills feels more caustically all-encompassing. - 75
IndieWire
Mungiu's method creates the feeling of being submerged in a maze of confrontations and chatter, but the build-up gets so tiring that the concluding scenes come as a relief instead of a payoff. - 70
The Hollywood Reporter
Beyond the Hills is less fun than any film about lesbian nuns and their psychotic ex-lovers ought to be. But it is an engrossingly serious work, and confirms Mungiu as a maturing talent with more universal stories to tell than those defined by Romania’s recent political past.
