'Based on a true story' – a phrase that can cover so many bases - is the slow-burning and languorous Romanian film Beyond the Hills.Set predominantly in a monastery in a bleak and poverty-stricken district, it is a complex and multi-layered film revolving around two young women, Alina and Voichita. Previously childhood friends then lovers, their lives intertwine once more when Alina returns from working in Germany in an attempt to once more enter into a relationship with Voichita who has since taken Holy Orders and is living the chaste and extremely frugal life of a nun. The rekindling of the relationship was always doomed and as Alina's mental health deteriorates with the realisation that she will not achieve her objective, she provokes a series of events culminating in the belief by some that she is possessed and needs cleansing.A Romanian film about faith, despair and unrequited lesbian love in an impoverished monastery was never likely to be an action-packed, sensationalist blockbuster. It is long at 155 minutes and its pace tends to alternate between dead slow and stop. It's the sort of a film which will take over 5 minutes to show a nun leaving the kitchen to draw water from the well and return to the kitchen with no dialogue or plot advancement throughout that period. But it is a film that has the courage to take its time, confident that it can draw you into the lives of the people whose story it tells. And on the whole it succeeds.There are no real villains or heroes in the film. It does not take the easy route to mock and blame religion for out-dated belief – when a nun believes she has been sent a sign from God and goes all peculiar, the Orthodox Priest in charge cuts down the hysteria curtly and tells her and the other nuns to move on. No, the people shown in this film, be they doctors, police or those of the cloth, are portrayed as well-meaning individuals all looking to do no harm even if, like all of us, they can be judgmental and self-righteous on occasion. Beyond the Hills is an unashamedly bleak and ultimately very sad film which gives no answers but merely records events leaving its audience to draw their own conclusions.Cinematography was good, though the constant sound of the ever-blowing wind was sometimes crude and off-putting.And there was an early failure of the sub-titles. When Alina first arrives at the monastery, the camera concentrates on a hand-written sign at its entrance. It's clearly of some import for it to be shown so, but the audience is not let in on its message. Post-film research ascertained it stated, words to the effect: This is the House of God. Forbidden to those of different religion. You must believe and not doubt. It would have explained much.

This is a very slow film, always repetitive,the story turn back all the time. I know that Romania is a poor land, and all countries with poverty and ignorance has place to hysterical religions. But I can't believe that a young that lived in Germany could be so weak in middle of a priest and a lot of subdued nuns. The worst thing is the end. Maybe the message is: a so stupid story deserve no appropriate end. The two principal actresses are convincing but the nuns are terrible, and the priest has no force, no conviction. The long moments with a frozen image are terrible. The film is very long, and we feel that this film is longer than his duration. Opera's resume: a bad film.

Well,I wanted desperately, not to like, to love this movie... All the premises were there, I couldn't wait for the film to be released... But, as the film was developing in front of my eyes, I was completely feeling less...No attachment to the girls, I didn't even care for one damn second about any of them, the film scratches everything that is supposed to carve upon, the director seems in a hurry to reach something that slips between his fingers...I felt no compassion for that girl, in some moments I was about to scream to her, get out of that place, girl, return to Germany, live your life and put ourselves out of the misery of watching this movie!And one more thing. The performances of both girls, cumulated, multiplied by 100, they never, ever, never ever, are any close to the magnificent performance of Emanuelle Riva in Amour... So , Nanni Moretti, I don't really know what came to your mind when you gave that award to these two, frustrating the beautiful Riva of that super-deserved award

Alina and Voichita had grown up together in an orphanage. They had found solace and comfort in each other's presence before both of them took different paths in their life. The film opens with Alina returning to home with the hope of reuniting with her childhood friend and starting a new life only to find Voichita leading a completely new life in a monastery with nothing but God at heart. What follows is one riveting on-screen journey that dwells on faith, love, theism, atheism and over all, human emotions that goes unfathomably deep. Director Cristian Mungiu's remarkable work to depict the tumults of emotions of both the lead characters would be etched on the mind of audiences. The story largely revolves around how Voichita trying to get Alina a new life like hers in the monastery and Alina repeatedly and determinedly trying to undermine the value of god to get Voichita to love her with horrific consequences for her and the people residing at the monastery. Many things are left to be inferred and left to individual interpretations, like it should be. The complicated relation between the lead characters is one of them. The love between them was still intact but faith divided them. The film also depicts the repercussions of faith and religion at its extreme. The screenplay of the film is excellent as it stresses to address the daily routine lifestyle at the monastery and how unbridled faith affects the rationale and morality of the people living there. Subject like this needed to be handled expertly and boy it was. So many subtle sub-plots like Alina's brother's pangs, the relationship between the priest of the monastery and the nuns are only examples of the palette of emotions that were drawn on screen. It's largely a women-centric film. So, it asks a lot from the performances of the two ladies, portraying central characters. Cristina Flutur (Alina) and Cosmina Stratan (Voichita) – both of them gave stellar performances that helped the film to consolidate the theme. The support cast, mostly comprised of female characters, was deft in their performances too. The only significant male character, 'The priest', played by the dependable Valeriu Andriutu, perhaps acted as the anchor of all the activities between all the female characters. Another aspect that demands exceptional praises is the cinematography. The remote country sides of Romania looked magnificent on screen. Sometimes, I wondered whether it was possible to pause and stare at those beautiful shots. Some of the intense scenes in the films were that intense because the way it was shown. Overall, it is a film that would leave its viewers, atheists and theists alike, in a profound state of preoccupation.P.S. I have noticed that sometimes the intensity of a film gets magnified when they use no background score at all.