Beyond the Hills

Alina is a woman possessed. Returning to her homeland after working menial jobs in Germany, she is determined to rescue her childhood friend Voichita from the monastery she was sent to after both girls were ejected from an orphanage at the age of eighteen. Alina?s single-minded resolve excludes any consideration that the docile Voichita might have actually found fulfillment in this austere retreat ? and a means of forgetting the lesbian relationship she and Alina once shared, a forbidden love that Alina is eager to rekindle. Standing between them is the unyielding "Papa", the head of the monastic order, who responds to Alina?s aggression with an ever more zealous dogmatism. He soon comes to believe that Alina has fallen prey to demonic possession, and it is his duty to chastise her soul. The only problem is that he fails to take account of the frailty of her body.