Beyond The Hills (Christian Mungiu, 2012): Romania

Reviewed  by Joakim Svensson, AFI Festival 2012.

Beyond the Hills, directed by Christian Mungiu, deserves to be brought to the world. The title works so well because it is really beyond them. This character driven story takes place at a convent outside a small town in Romania, during a beautiful but cold winter. Circling the relationship between two friends that grew up together in same orphanage, one has moved her life to the convent and it’s rather difficult ways of dealing with things, like staying alive together with their often overly practiced religion. The other lost without her friend shows up to take her away from her new life and bring her back to the city of Berlin to continue their life together in a different country. In hopes of turning their mutual longing for a different home into reality. What makes this story work so well is the instant establishing of the two friends and their connection caused by very different characters, you feel that the love they have for each other never disappeared, even with a long time apart. You have two more amazing hours of them on screen after that. This very personal story is emphasized by the use of very long takes, you let all of the characters sink in and you listen to every beautiful word that comes out of their mouths. The camera is often placed at a seat by a table during dinner, you feel part of the often heavy conversations that takes place over a four minute take. You can argue that not a whole lot happens during this story, but it is not that kind of story. Most of it is happening under the surface, which requires a deeper understanding of religion and its effects on people to see it for more then whats being shown. We all strive for meaning and understanding and it is usually easier to achieve through religion, but not all of us agree. That is what i feel Beyond The Hills is trying to tell us, which they masterfully do in a beautiful way. If you want to see the question being raised through a highly artistic and true story from the cold winter of Romania together with two very captivating people dressed in black in a white world you should see Beyond The Hills.