An American journalist praised the last movie of the renowned romanian movie maker Cristian Mungiu, on the New York Times blog.
Not the thunderclap of "4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days", but an excellent film all the same. Director Cristian Mungiu's brilliant framing seems only to have gotten stronger. The plot is loosely based on a BBC reporter's book about a young girl who underwent an exorcism in a remote Romanian Orthodox convent and wound up dead. There's some discussion by critics as to whether the film reflects badly on the church, rather like those doggedly insisting "4 Months" wasn't saying anything bad about Romania's abortion laws.
I'd say the director absolutely means to criticize (and despite his reticence, Mungiu's interviews stating the movie is about "superstition" bear me out, I think). But he's no harder on the religious characters than he is on the secular ones; Mungiu does not appear overfond of Romanian authorities of any type. Both young actresses are riveting but I was particularly taken with the one playing the nun Voichita (Cosmina Strattan). She shows radiant faith overtaken by doubt, bit by tiny bit, like a dripping faucet eventually overlowing a sink.
By Farran Smith Nehme.