International sales agents, producers and programmers salute 2023 edition of Transilvania Pitch Stop
Attendees praised the projects, atmosphere and organisation.
Romania-born, Berlin-based director Cosmin Nicolae’s debut feature project Pyrrhic was the big winner at this year’s Transilvania Pitch Stop during TIFF’s industry programme.
The drama, which has already secured more than half of its €1.4m budget, was awarded €25,000 in post-production services as part of the Chainsaw Europe post-production award as well as the CoCo Award’s five-day residency from the Connecting Cottbus East-West Co-Production Market.
Nicolae’s screenplay centres on a 40-year-old woman army veteran returning from Afghanistan to her hometown on the Black Sea coast and making a...
Romania-born, Berlin-based director Cosmin Nicolae’s debut feature project Pyrrhic was the big winner at this year’s Transilvania Pitch Stop during TIFF’s industry programme.
The drama, which has already secured more than half of its €1.4m budget, was awarded €25,000 in post-production services as part of the Chainsaw Europe post-production award as well as the CoCo Award’s five-day residency from the Connecting Cottbus East-West Co-Production Market.
Nicolae’s screenplay centres on a 40-year-old woman army veteran returning from Afghanistan to her hometown on the Black Sea coast and making a...
- 6/19/2023
- by Martin Blaney
- ScreenDaily
International sales agents, producers and programmers salute 2024 edition of Transilvania Pitch Stop
Attendees praised the projects, atmosphere and organisation
Romania-born, Berlin-based director Cosmin Nicolae’s debut feature project Pyrrhic was the big winner at this year’s Transilvania Pitch Stop during TIFF’s industry programme.
The drama, which has already secured more than half of its €1.4m budget, was awarded €25,000 in post-production services as part of the Chainsaw Europe post-production award as well as the CoCo Award’s five-day residency from the Connecting Cottbus East-West Co-Production Market.
Nicolae’s screenplay centres on a 40-year-old woman army veteran returning from Afghanistan to her hometown on the Black Sea coast and making a harrowing...
Romania-born, Berlin-based director Cosmin Nicolae’s debut feature project Pyrrhic was the big winner at this year’s Transilvania Pitch Stop during TIFF’s industry programme.
The drama, which has already secured more than half of its €1.4m budget, was awarded €25,000 in post-production services as part of the Chainsaw Europe post-production award as well as the CoCo Award’s five-day residency from the Connecting Cottbus East-West Co-Production Market.
Nicolae’s screenplay centres on a 40-year-old woman army veteran returning from Afghanistan to her hometown on the Black Sea coast and making a harrowing...
- 6/19/2023
- by Martin Blaney
- ScreenDaily
Miracle (Miracol) Film Movement Reviewed for Shockya.com & BigAppleReviews.net, linked from Rotten Tomatoes and the IMDb by Harvey Karten Director: Bogdan George Apetri Screenwriter: Bogdan George Apetri Cast: Ioana Bugarin, Emanuel Parvu, Cezar Antal, Ovidiu Crisan, Valeriu Andriuta, Valentin Popescu Screened at: Critics’ link, NYC, 5/5/22 Opens: June 10, 2022 at New York’s Film Forum […]
The post Miracle (Miracol) Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
The post Miracle (Miracol) Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
- 6/5/2022
- by Harvey Karten
- ShockYa
"Something this big is beyond me." What is the mystery hidden within this? Film Movement has unveiled an official US trailer for a Romanian religious / investigative drama titled Miracle, which originally premiered at last year's Venice Film Festival. This acclaimed film is about the possibility of actually discovering a real miracle, by following two separate storylines years apart. A young nun sneaks out of her monastery to attend an urgent matter but never makes it back. Followed years later by a police detective's investigation into her fate, uncovering clues and revelations that lead not only to the truth but a miracle as well. Reviews of the film are mostly positive, stating: "Simple in scope, yet complex and precise in its execution, the result is a marvel befitting its title." The film stars Ioana Bugarin, Emanuel Parvu, Cezar Antal, Ovidiu Crisan, and Valeriu Andriuta. I really do wonder what's going on in the film,...
- 5/8/2022
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
This is the Pure Movies review of A Gentle Creature, directed by Sergei Loznitsa, and starring Vasilina Makovtseva, Liya Akhedzhakova, Valeriu Andriutã and Boris Kamorzin. It’s difficult to write about A Gentle Creature. This is partly by design, of course, with writer/director Sergei Loznitsa refashioning a Dostoyevsky short story into a sprawling, elusive, beguiling epic. What quickly becomes apparent during Loznitsa’s two-and-a-half-hour opus is that it’s a film of ravishing ambition, mounting a complex allegory for life in modern Russia that confounds narrative sense at every turn. In its place is an intricate framework of signs and signifiers, vignettes of dreamlike absurdity that flow with hazy indifference towards somewhere, well, let’s just say ‘bleak’.
- 5/7/2018
- by Joshua Glenn
- Pure Movies
Exclusive: Deals in Germany, Latin American, more for Austerlitz director’s next film; producers secure France deal.
Wild Bunch has concluded a string of pre-sales on Sergei Loznitsa’s new drama A Gentle Creature, which recently wrapped shoot in Eastern Europe and is set for a 2017 release.
The feature — loosely inspired by a Fyodor Dostoyevsky 1876 short story (which has already prompted films by Alexander Borisov, Robert Bresson, Mani Kaul and Raphael Nadjari) - charts the story of a woman who travels from the outskirts of Russia to a mysterious prison in order to find out what has happened to her incarcerated husband.
Grand Film, which previously bought the director’s documentaries Maidan and The Event, will release in Germany, Palmera International will distribute in Latin and Central America, Fabula in Turkey, Against Gravity in Poland, Seven in Greece, Alambique in Portugal, McF in former Yugoslavia, Vertigo in Hungary, Film Europe in Czech Republic and Encore for Airlines...
Wild Bunch has concluded a string of pre-sales on Sergei Loznitsa’s new drama A Gentle Creature, which recently wrapped shoot in Eastern Europe and is set for a 2017 release.
The feature — loosely inspired by a Fyodor Dostoyevsky 1876 short story (which has already prompted films by Alexander Borisov, Robert Bresson, Mani Kaul and Raphael Nadjari) - charts the story of a woman who travels from the outskirts of Russia to a mysterious prison in order to find out what has happened to her incarcerated husband.
Grand Film, which previously bought the director’s documentaries Maidan and The Event, will release in Germany, Palmera International will distribute in Latin and Central America, Fabula in Turkey, Against Gravity in Poland, Seven in Greece, Alambique in Portugal, McF in former Yugoslavia, Vertigo in Hungary, Film Europe in Czech Republic and Encore for Airlines...
- 9/12/2016
- by andreas.wiseman@screendaily.com (Andreas Wiseman)
- ScreenDaily
Film loosely inspired by Dostoyevsky story to shoot in and around Latvian city of Daugavpils.
Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa will begin shooting his Fyodor Dostoyevsky-inspired feature A Gentle Creature in the Latvian city of Daugavpils this week, Paris-based producer Slot Machine announced on Monday.
The five-week shoot, which kicks-off on Tuesday (July 19), will take place mainly in and around Daugavpils, Latvia’s second largest city which lies in the southeast of the country on the border with Lithuania and Belarus. Some scenes will also be shot in Lithuania.
The feature — loosely inspired by Russian writer Dostoyevsky’s 1876 short story A Gentle Creature – revolves around a woman who travels to a prison in a remote region to find out what has happened to her incarcerated husband after a parcel she sent is returned without explanation.
“It’s a completely invented story: I invented it from start to finish. I was inspired by Dostoyevsky’s novella, which he himself...
Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa will begin shooting his Fyodor Dostoyevsky-inspired feature A Gentle Creature in the Latvian city of Daugavpils this week, Paris-based producer Slot Machine announced on Monday.
The five-week shoot, which kicks-off on Tuesday (July 19), will take place mainly in and around Daugavpils, Latvia’s second largest city which lies in the southeast of the country on the border with Lithuania and Belarus. Some scenes will also be shot in Lithuania.
The feature — loosely inspired by Russian writer Dostoyevsky’s 1876 short story A Gentle Creature – revolves around a woman who travels to a prison in a remote region to find out what has happened to her incarcerated husband after a parcel she sent is returned without explanation.
“It’s a completely invented story: I invented it from start to finish. I was inspired by Dostoyevsky’s novella, which he himself...
- 7/18/2016
- ScreenDaily
★★★★☆ It's been a remarkable decade for Romanian cinema. While Cristi Puiu and Corneliu Porumboiu both delivered impressive works with The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (2005) and Police, Adjective (2009) respectively, it was arguably Cristian Mungiu's 2007 Palme d'Or winner 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days that crystallised the movement and defined the Romanian New Wave. The shadow of Nicolae Ceausescu and brutal communist regime is still a key thematic concern for Mungiu but, with Beyond the Hills (2012), he pushes it to the background, focusing his steely gaze on the lost souls struggling to find purpose in new Romania.
Based on two non-fiction books by Tatiana Niculescu, Beyond the Hills follows Alina (Cristina Flutur) as she returns to her hometown to take her childhood friend Voichita (Cosmina Stratan) back to Germany with her. Both women grew up at the same orphanage, where they forged a strong, ambiguous connection. But, while Alina has been away, Voichita has...
Based on two non-fiction books by Tatiana Niculescu, Beyond the Hills follows Alina (Cristina Flutur) as she returns to her hometown to take her childhood friend Voichita (Cosmina Stratan) back to Germany with her. Both women grew up at the same orphanage, where they forged a strong, ambiguous connection. But, while Alina has been away, Voichita has...
- 6/12/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
Beyond The Hills is a slow-paced but unnerving movie based on real events that occurred in Romania a decade ago. It’s not a horror film but imagine if Ingmar Bergman had directed The Exorcist and you might get a handle on its tone. There are no spinning heads or levitation but what is most scary about Beyond The Hills is the knowledge that it really happened. It’s an unsubtle indictment of the backwardness of the Eastern Orthodox Catholic Church but like many good films, there is more than one way to read the story and the religious and personal experiences of the viewer may shape that interpretation.
The setting for Beyond The Hills is a monastery in a remote Romania mountain village to which twenty-something Alina (Cristina Flutur) has travelled to visit her childhood friend Voichita (Cosmina Stratan). The two grew up in an orphanage together but Alina...
The setting for Beyond The Hills is a monastery in a remote Romania mountain village to which twenty-something Alina (Cristina Flutur) has travelled to visit her childhood friend Voichita (Cosmina Stratan). The two grew up in an orphanage together but Alina...
- 4/5/2013
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Chicago – There is an excellent 90-minute film hidden somewhere within the two-and-a-half-hour ordeal that is Cristian Mungiu’s “Beyond the Hills.” It’s far from a bad film, and offers many sequences of entrancing power, but simply doesn’t have enough material to justify its sprawling running time. Instead of probing deeper, the picture merely becomes repetitive.
Rating: 3.5/5.0
There’s also a dour sense of inevitability that overtakes the suspense at about the one-hour mark. The final outcome is obvious long before it arrives onscreen, and the same could be said of Mungiu’s previous effort, 2007’s Palme d’Or winner, “4 Months, 3 Weeks and Days.” Yet whereas that brilliant film was fueled by its often excruciating tension, “Hills” unfolds with a ponderously cynical logic. Though Mungiu’s work has brought tremendous global attention to the Romanian film industry, neither film will do the country’s tourism market any favors.
Read...
Rating: 3.5/5.0
There’s also a dour sense of inevitability that overtakes the suspense at about the one-hour mark. The final outcome is obvious long before it arrives onscreen, and the same could be said of Mungiu’s previous effort, 2007’s Palme d’Or winner, “4 Months, 3 Weeks and Days.” Yet whereas that brilliant film was fueled by its often excruciating tension, “Hills” unfolds with a ponderously cynical logic. Though Mungiu’s work has brought tremendous global attention to the Romanian film industry, neither film will do the country’s tourism market any favors.
Read...
- 3/14/2013
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Chicago – Five years after revitalizing the Romanian film industry with his 2007 Palme d’Or winner, “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days,” filmmaker Cristian Mungiu returned to the Cannes Film Festival with his eagerly awaited follow-up, “Beyond the Hills.” Mungiu won the screenplay prize while his leading ladies, newcomers Cosmina Stratan and Cristina Flutur, each received acting accolades.
Art house audiences in Chicago will have the chance to catch Mungiu’s chilling drama when it opens Friday at the Landmark Century Centre Cinema. The fact-based tale centers on two old friends, Voichita (Stratan) and Alina (Flutur), who reconnect at an isolated monastery that appears to have been frozen in time. Though Alina expects her friend (and former lover) to leave with her, Voichita opts for a life of devout worship with the nuns rather than embrace mortal pleasures. Alina’s enraged acts of rebellion are interpreted by Voichita’s fellow nuns as demonic possession,...
Art house audiences in Chicago will have the chance to catch Mungiu’s chilling drama when it opens Friday at the Landmark Century Centre Cinema. The fact-based tale centers on two old friends, Voichita (Stratan) and Alina (Flutur), who reconnect at an isolated monastery that appears to have been frozen in time. Though Alina expects her friend (and former lover) to leave with her, Voichita opts for a life of devout worship with the nuns rather than embrace mortal pleasures. Alina’s enraged acts of rebellion are interpreted by Voichita’s fellow nuns as demonic possession,...
- 3/12/2013
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Title: Beyond the Hills Director: Cristian Mungiu Starring: Cristina Flutur, Cosmina Stratan, Valeriu Andriuta Cristian Mungiu is the most well-known figure inside of the Romanian New Wave, and justifiably so. Mungiu is unwilling to compromise with the audience and even with himself, in spite of the subject matter being too difficult to talk about (let alone watch), and his ability to probe the minds and hearts of each and every character makes him a riveting director with enormous potential. In 2007, 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days was his second feature film that set Cannes ablaze with his powerful take on Romania’s abortion issue, ultimately winning the prestigious Palme [ Read More ]
The post Beyond the Hills Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
The post Beyond the Hills Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
- 3/7/2013
- by justin
- ShockYa
Chicago – In the latest HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film with our unique social giveaway technology, we have 50 pairs of movie passes up for grabs to the advance screening of double Cannes Film Festival winner “Beyond the Hills” from the director of “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days”!
“Beyond the Hills,” which opens on March 15, 2013 in Chicago and is not rated, stars Cosmina Stratan, Cristina Flutur, Valeriu Andriuta, Dana Tapalaga, Catalina Harabagiu, Gina Tandura, Vica Agache, Nora Covali, Dionisie Vitcu and Ionut Ghinea from writer and director Cristian Mungiu. The film was inspired by the non-fiction novels by Tatiana Niculescu Bran.
To win your free “Beyond the Hills” passes courtesy of HollywoodChicago.com, just get interactive with our unique Hookup technology below. That’s it! This screening is on Thursday, March 7, 2013 at 7 p.m. in Chicago. The more social actions you complete, the more points you score and the higher yours odds of winning!
“Beyond the Hills,” which opens on March 15, 2013 in Chicago and is not rated, stars Cosmina Stratan, Cristina Flutur, Valeriu Andriuta, Dana Tapalaga, Catalina Harabagiu, Gina Tandura, Vica Agache, Nora Covali, Dionisie Vitcu and Ionut Ghinea from writer and director Cristian Mungiu. The film was inspired by the non-fiction novels by Tatiana Niculescu Bran.
To win your free “Beyond the Hills” passes courtesy of HollywoodChicago.com, just get interactive with our unique Hookup technology below. That’s it! This screening is on Thursday, March 7, 2013 at 7 p.m. in Chicago. The more social actions you complete, the more points you score and the higher yours odds of winning!
- 3/6/2013
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Title: Beyond The Hills (Dupa dealuri) Sundance Selects Director: Cristian Mungiu Screenwriter: Cristian Mungiu, Inspired by Tatiana Niculescu Bran’s nonfiction novels Cast: Cosmina Stratan, Cristina Flutur, Valeriu Andriuta, Dana Tapalaga Screened at: Review 1, NYC, 2/20/13 Opens: March 8, 2013 In the production notes, writer-director Cristian Mungiu states that his over-riding theme in creating “Beyond the Hills” is to show the indifference of Romanian society. Whereas the Eastern Orthodox Church, which is on display in perhaps its least flamboyant location and design, declares that there are 464 sins of which humankind may be guilty, the director’s belief that the greatest sin of all, that of indifference, is not even mentioned. [ Read More ]
The post Beyond the Hills Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
The post Beyond the Hills Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
- 2/21/2013
- by Harvey Karten
- ShockYa
As part of an early look at next year’s Oscars, Prize Fighter — in an ongoing series — is highlighting several of the directors and official entries submitted by a whopping 71 countries competing for the Academy Award for best foreign language film.
Five years after his 2007 critically acclaimed beautiful and brutal feature about illegal abortion, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, failed to snag an Oscar nomination, prompting controversy, director Cristian Mungiu is back with another stark, hyper-realistic drama: Romania’s official 2013 foreign film Oscar entry Beyond the Hills.
“In a very strange way, 4 Months’ failure to be nominated in 2007 brought us a lot of notoriety,...
Five years after his 2007 critically acclaimed beautiful and brutal feature about illegal abortion, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, failed to snag an Oscar nomination, prompting controversy, director Cristian Mungiu is back with another stark, hyper-realistic drama: Romania’s official 2013 foreign film Oscar entry Beyond the Hills.
“In a very strange way, 4 Months’ failure to be nominated in 2007 brought us a lot of notoriety,...
- 12/14/2012
- by Solvej Schou
- EW - Inside Movies
Beyond the Hills
Directed by Cristian Mungiu
Romania, 2012
Philadelphia Film Festival
Cristian Mungiu’s first feature-film since the slow-burn Cannes winner 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, visits a similar “women in trouble” theme and replaces the big city with a rural village.
Alina (Cristina Flutur) and Voichita (Cosmina Stratan) grew up in an orphanage together. They’ve long since parted ways when Alina comes from Germany to visit Voichita at her small, isolated monastery and tries to convince her friend to leave with her. When Voichita refuses Alina doesn’t take her response too lightly.
Mungiu’s film feels as much like a prison break as a glimpse into Orthodox, ultra-devout monasticism. The lone priest (Valeriu Andriuta) is a silent jailer whose motives Alina frequently calls into question. Small wooden, windowed huts and frequent snowstorms make the place look more like Stalag 17 than The Bell’s of St. Mary’s.
Directed by Cristian Mungiu
Romania, 2012
Philadelphia Film Festival
Cristian Mungiu’s first feature-film since the slow-burn Cannes winner 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, visits a similar “women in trouble” theme and replaces the big city with a rural village.
Alina (Cristina Flutur) and Voichita (Cosmina Stratan) grew up in an orphanage together. They’ve long since parted ways when Alina comes from Germany to visit Voichita at her small, isolated monastery and tries to convince her friend to leave with her. When Voichita refuses Alina doesn’t take her response too lightly.
Mungiu’s film feels as much like a prison break as a glimpse into Orthodox, ultra-devout monasticism. The lone priest (Valeriu Andriuta) is a silent jailer whose motives Alina frequently calls into question. Small wooden, windowed huts and frequent snowstorms make the place look more like Stalag 17 than The Bell’s of St. Mary’s.
- 10/22/2012
- by Neal Dhand
- SoundOnSight
Alina (Cristina Flutur) returns to the impoverished Romanian community of her childhood in the hope of reuniting with Voichita (Cosmina Stratan) and returning with her to Germany and a new life. Upon arrival though, Alina discovers that Voichita has set up a new life for herself in a remote monastery and replaced her love with that of God. Undeterred, yet at the risk of her own mental wellbeing, Alina desperately tries to undermine the monasteries priest (Valeriu Andriuta) and reclaim Voichita’s devotion.
In Beyond the Hills, Romanian-born writer-director Cristian Mungiu’s follow-up to the award-winning and acclaimed 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, the complicated bond between two women is once again put under the spotlight. Alina and Voichita, once unified, have been separated for several years, each influenced by life in different ways. Alina has become strained under the pressure of her desired independence, while Voichita has found acceptance – and...
In Beyond the Hills, Romanian-born writer-director Cristian Mungiu’s follow-up to the award-winning and acclaimed 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, the complicated bond between two women is once again put under the spotlight. Alina and Voichita, once unified, have been separated for several years, each influenced by life in different ways. Alina has become strained under the pressure of her desired independence, while Voichita has found acceptance – and...
- 10/15/2012
- by Jamie Neish
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Cristian Mungiu’s (4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days) sombre, unsettling film about the polarisation of religion and the individual is another challenging effort from the director, one which, despite an over-long 150-minute run-time, is well worth the trip for the patient viewer.
Best friends Voichita (Cosmina Stratan) and Alina (Cristina Flutur) have long since diverged on their life paths, but meet up under emotional circumstances when Alina comes to visit Voichita, who is now a nun at a secluded monastery. Emotionally cold and situated in a desolate expanse without even modern necessities like electricity, it is clear early on that Voichita is not who Alina expected to meet, and we quickly begin to fear that she has been brainwashed by “Papa” (Valeriu Andriuta), the authoritarian leader of the church. The very fact that her accommodation in the monastery is frequently referred to as a “cell” only helps generate an atmosphere of incarceration,...
Cristian Mungiu’s (4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days) sombre, unsettling film about the polarisation of religion and the individual is another challenging effort from the director, one which, despite an over-long 150-minute run-time, is well worth the trip for the patient viewer.
Best friends Voichita (Cosmina Stratan) and Alina (Cristina Flutur) have long since diverged on their life paths, but meet up under emotional circumstances when Alina comes to visit Voichita, who is now a nun at a secluded monastery. Emotionally cold and situated in a desolate expanse without even modern necessities like electricity, it is clear early on that Voichita is not who Alina expected to meet, and we quickly begin to fear that she has been brainwashed by “Papa” (Valeriu Andriuta), the authoritarian leader of the church. The very fact that her accommodation in the monastery is frequently referred to as a “cell” only helps generate an atmosphere of incarceration,...
- 10/13/2012
- by Shaun Munro
- Obsessed with Film
Chicago – The 48th Annual Chicago International Film Festival boasts one of the starriest opening nights in its history, with Al Pacino, Christopher Walken, Alan Arkin and Jon Bon Jovi all scheduled to walk the red carpet for the October 11th world premiere of Fisher Stevens’ crime comedy, “Stand Up Guys.” Yet that is far from the only picture worthy of attention at the year’s festival. Here are the highlights of the opening weekend covering October 11th to October 14th, 2012 (stay tuned on the 15th and 18th for more highlights).
Throughout the festival, Hollywood Chicago will be showcasing various films that deserve to not be overlooked. The opening act of this year’s Ciff includes a mind-bending fantasy that caused a sensation at Cannes and a riveting Wisconsin-set documentary that offers an unforgettable microcosm of the financial crisis. Also screening are the latest buzzed-about titles from directors including Romanian auteur Cristian Mungiu (“4 Months,...
Throughout the festival, Hollywood Chicago will be showcasing various films that deserve to not be overlooked. The opening act of this year’s Ciff includes a mind-bending fantasy that caused a sensation at Cannes and a riveting Wisconsin-set documentary that offers an unforgettable microcosm of the financial crisis. Also screening are the latest buzzed-about titles from directors including Romanian auteur Cristian Mungiu (“4 Months,...
- 10/11/2012
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Beyond the Hills (Dupa dealuri)
Directed by Cristian Mungiu
Written by Cristian Mungiu (inspired by the non-fiction novels of Tatiana Niculescu Bran)
2012, Romania
At 150 minutes, Cristian Mungiu’s Beyond the Hills is not a second overlong. Extended as its takes may be and as patiently as the narrative progresses to its drained conclusion, there is a heaving sense of urgency to this story of a young woman who was failed by pretty much everyone – including herself – and died because of it. It is a true story in fact, fashioned by Mungiu, with the assistance of Niculescu Bran whose non-fiction novels he drew much inspiration from, into a fine screenplay that contains more religious and anti-religious rhetoric than a movie that ultimately feels this morally cagey has any right to. This might partly be due to the way the director shoots his actors and the way the actors speak his lines,...
Directed by Cristian Mungiu
Written by Cristian Mungiu (inspired by the non-fiction novels of Tatiana Niculescu Bran)
2012, Romania
At 150 minutes, Cristian Mungiu’s Beyond the Hills is not a second overlong. Extended as its takes may be and as patiently as the narrative progresses to its drained conclusion, there is a heaving sense of urgency to this story of a young woman who was failed by pretty much everyone – including herself – and died because of it. It is a true story in fact, fashioned by Mungiu, with the assistance of Niculescu Bran whose non-fiction novels he drew much inspiration from, into a fine screenplay that contains more religious and anti-religious rhetoric than a movie that ultimately feels this morally cagey has any right to. This might partly be due to the way the director shoots his actors and the way the actors speak his lines,...
- 8/13/2012
- by Tope
- SoundOnSight
Romanian filmmaker Cristian Mungiu is undoubtedly a Cannes darling, with his debut feature film Occidental having premiered in the Director’s Fortnight in 2002 and his follow-up 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days taking the Palme D’Or in 2007. In his third film, Beyond the Hills, the director attempts to tackle the universal subject of faith and love in an unusually particular manner. Using his trademark single-take shots for each scene and completely devoid of any music, the film plays out like a solemn sabbatical about the hardships of committing oneself completely to God. Despite the promising approach to a controversial issue, the film is a chore to sit through, reminiscent of a child bored in Sunday school.
The film opens with a solemn tracking shot of Voichita (played by newcomer Cosmina Stratan) a nun from an orthodox monastery picking up her childhood friend Alina (played with silent brutality by another newcomer Cristina Flutur...
The film opens with a solemn tracking shot of Voichita (played by newcomer Cosmina Stratan) a nun from an orthodox monastery picking up her childhood friend Alina (played with silent brutality by another newcomer Cristina Flutur...
- 5/20/2012
- by jpraup@gmail.com (thefilmstage.com)
- The Film Stage
Romanian director Cristian Mungiu has delivered a brilliant, scary portrayal of irrationality and fear in Europe's dark heart
We are way beyond the hills. For his new film in this year's Competition, the Romanian Palme D'Or winner Cristian Mungiu has given us a captivating tragi-comedy of sexual hysteria and material want. This long movie is played out in a kind of real time, a mysterious secular passion play; Mungiu apparently based the action on the reportage of the BBC World Service's Bucharest bureau chief Tatiana Niculescu Bran who wrote about a case in 2005, where a novice died after being subjected to an exorcism in Romania's Tanacu monastery: an irrational horror at the heart of 21st-century Europe.
Fictionalising this real case, Mungiu brings his distinctive dramatic language, his flair for creating group-tableaux photographed from a single, static camera position, his skill in portraying intimate, embattled female relationships, and his shrewd connoisseurship of officialdom's bland,...
We are way beyond the hills. For his new film in this year's Competition, the Romanian Palme D'Or winner Cristian Mungiu has given us a captivating tragi-comedy of sexual hysteria and material want. This long movie is played out in a kind of real time, a mysterious secular passion play; Mungiu apparently based the action on the reportage of the BBC World Service's Bucharest bureau chief Tatiana Niculescu Bran who wrote about a case in 2005, where a novice died after being subjected to an exorcism in Romania's Tanacu monastery: an irrational horror at the heart of 21st-century Europe.
Fictionalising this real case, Mungiu brings his distinctive dramatic language, his flair for creating group-tableaux photographed from a single, static camera position, his skill in portraying intimate, embattled female relationships, and his shrewd connoisseurship of officialdom's bland,...
- 5/20/2012
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Once again, it appears as if we’ll be associating the name of Cristian Mungiu with the Palme d’Or. By the looks of how the trades, critical mass and the results of our critics’ panel, the major contender to break out in the fest during week one of the fest is indeed Beyond the Hills. Set in a monastery, is tells the tale of how one person’s former love has no chances in competing with a higher love. Starring Cosmina Stratan, Cristina Flutur and Valeriu Andriuta, this Romanian-France co-production (Why Not Prod. and Dardenne Bros.’ Les Films du Fleuve) which clocks in at over two and a half hours is being mentioned along with the golden 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days. This is Mungiu’s fourth feature, first since Tales from the Golden Age. Click to enlarge!
- 5/20/2012
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
At Cannes, the fabled Palme d’Or isn’t like any other Best Picture award. Unlike, say, the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, or even the Oscar, it is conferred with a reverence that says: This film is a work of art — and the person who made it has been ushered into the pantheon. He (or she) is now one of the initiated, recognized in the shimmering galaxy of the international film world to be a major artist, a saint of the cinema, a wearer of the supreme auteur merit badge. There have been 65 Palme d’Or winners (the award...
- 5/19/2012
- by Owen Gleiberman
- EW - Inside Movies
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