Beyond the Hills (2012)

Cristian Mungiu's much-lauded and awards-happy feature follow-up to the brilliant 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days is a sublime exploration of superstitious dogma clashing with strict secularism. It is at first a painfully slow and bleak account of two women whose lives cross paths once again after they leave the orphanage where they grew up and where, it is inferred, they were sexually and physically abused.

Voichita, played by debutante Cosmina Stratan, is a novice nun of a hilltop Orthodox monastery in rural Romania. The monastery is run by a young conservative priest, Papa (Valeriu Andruita). The remaining members of the monastery are a group of misfit nuns from all walks of life. Papa, like his name, runs the place like a devoted, but distant father. He occasionally interferes with the nuns' overly superstitious beliefs, but he has a strong stance against all those who are not of his faith. He is at times a repulsive character.