Beyond The Hills

MUST SEE: Christian Mungiu's Beyond The Hills (Romania, 2012) - Spare, unadorned and strikingly shot, Cristian Mungiu’s film is an unusual rendering of a Romanian exorcism case and is bound to split both audience and critical opinions, some considering it a major achievement and others blaming it for overlong pretentious sensationalism. But it will certainly not pass unnoticed. It is inspired by a two non-fiction novels written by Tatiana Niculescu Bran, a BBC correspondent who investigated the case of a young woman supposedly possessed by evil spirits in 2005 and who was tortured to death in a Romanian monastery to drive the devil out of her body. Mungiu’s script tackles such major themes as love, faith, freedom of spirit versus rigid religion, ignorance and poverty, providing a fertile background for the inevitable ensuing conflicts. 2012CANic, 2012NYFF, 2012TOR, 2013OE, 2013PALM. RATING: 8