Beautifully acted, thoughtful and affecting. It reminded me of Robert Bresson's films about French priests in obscure post-war villages, taking the pain of the world on their shoulders. Except this Orthodox priest had a thick skin and a robust attitude to the post-Ceaucescu corruption that turns a blind eye to the exploitation of Rumanian women in the Mediterranean sex trade. Its juxtaposition of his faith and the loneliness beneath the surface of tourist havens like Cyprus haunted me. It was realistic without being salacious, strongly felt without Hollywood sentimentality. My only quibble was that some of the early scenes were a little ponderous.
3 Reviews
Must see, is about everything in our life, powerful drama. Don't look at IMDB SCORE !
ciprianionut12 November 2023
It is about the aftermath of traumas, corruption in politics, love, but also the presentation of how a person close to God should be.
This movie from director Ciprian Mega is somehow part of a trilogy.
1-The Very Last Morning (2016) 2-The Voice Crying in the Wilderness (2022) 3-21 Rubies(2023).
Each film presents the simple life with its dramas, the actions taken with their consequences but also the traumas that follow us all our lives making us act as a result of what we experienced.
Several subjects are treated at the same time, presented subtly, it is mandatory to watch every second in Ciprian Mega's films because 1 second can make you miss an extremely important scene presented maybe even a second, even if the camera falls on an object that means something, whether one of the characters says something that can turn the whole movie upside down or reveal the actions up to that point in the movie.
This movie from director Ciprian Mega is somehow part of a trilogy.
1-The Very Last Morning (2016) 2-The Voice Crying in the Wilderness (2022) 3-21 Rubies(2023).
Each film presents the simple life with its dramas, the actions taken with their consequences but also the traumas that follow us all our lives making us act as a result of what we experienced.
Several subjects are treated at the same time, presented subtly, it is mandatory to watch every second in Ciprian Mega's films because 1 second can make you miss an extremely important scene presented maybe even a second, even if the camera falls on an object that means something, whether one of the characters says something that can turn the whole movie upside down or reveal the actions up to that point in the movie.
A sad excuse for a social critique
MoonSander14 March 2022
Warning: Spoilers
Warning: This review contains sarcasm.
The film's subject is one which was rather overused in Romanian recent filmography: the story of a prostitute. The main innovative factor is that, while most stories about Romanian prostitutes take place in Italy, Spain or in Romania, this one takes place in Cyprus. The other innovative factor is that, if one looks carefully enough, one realizes the movie is not even about the main character. (Mind blowing, right?)
But I'm getting ahead of myself.
In short, this is a Fantine (Les Miserables)-inspired redemption story that follows a young woman with a traumatic past, who now works as a prostitute in Cyprus to help support the child she had left back home with her mother. Among her clients, the most prominent one is her country's ambassador.
After finding out she is dying (of AIDS because there weren't enough clichés in this movie already), although a declared atheist, this modern-day Fantine starts visiting a priest to whom she tells her story and who helps her deal with her problems and change her life. Thanks to him, she refuses to sell her body anymore and focuses on a new romance with a young man she meets, not bothering to search for a decent job (probably because she is dying, after all), nor considering returning to Romania to spend what time she has left with her daughter (despite her dying). Eventually, she ends up alone in a Cypriot hospital, only the priest by her side.
But, as I was mentioning earlier, she is not even the true main character of the movie, nor is her story its true subject. The real main is the priest she's seeing and who is portrayed as a mistreated savior, the powers to be always against him, unwilling to see him for the morally superior being he truly is.
His nemesis, the ambassador - a middle-aged man who was never informed, apparently, that he can take his wife with him when he is sent abroad, and has, for that reason, basically abandoned his family and found consolation in the arms of prostitutes - only has one thorn in his side: the good priest who refuses to obey him (?), and whose main fault in his eyes is that he had built a church without asking for the Embassy's support. Of course, he also dislikes the fact that the priest calls him a Communist and that he reveals to the local Romanian community the "well-kept secret" of the existence of prostitution, a phenomenon the ambassador firmly and utterly publicly denies for some reason.
Sarcasm aside, in terms of acting, the movie is not bad. The cast, although very small, is rather convincing.
The true problem with this movie, though, is the scenario. The writing is superficial, un-researched, and fails short of being compelling. The characters are caricatures of real people, their motivations barely explored and impossible to truly understand.
While it's not the worst Romanian film I've ever seen, it is not one I either liked or would watch again.
The film's subject is one which was rather overused in Romanian recent filmography: the story of a prostitute. The main innovative factor is that, while most stories about Romanian prostitutes take place in Italy, Spain or in Romania, this one takes place in Cyprus. The other innovative factor is that, if one looks carefully enough, one realizes the movie is not even about the main character. (Mind blowing, right?)
But I'm getting ahead of myself.
In short, this is a Fantine (Les Miserables)-inspired redemption story that follows a young woman with a traumatic past, who now works as a prostitute in Cyprus to help support the child she had left back home with her mother. Among her clients, the most prominent one is her country's ambassador.
After finding out she is dying (of AIDS because there weren't enough clichés in this movie already), although a declared atheist, this modern-day Fantine starts visiting a priest to whom she tells her story and who helps her deal with her problems and change her life. Thanks to him, she refuses to sell her body anymore and focuses on a new romance with a young man she meets, not bothering to search for a decent job (probably because she is dying, after all), nor considering returning to Romania to spend what time she has left with her daughter (despite her dying). Eventually, she ends up alone in a Cypriot hospital, only the priest by her side.
But, as I was mentioning earlier, she is not even the true main character of the movie, nor is her story its true subject. The real main is the priest she's seeing and who is portrayed as a mistreated savior, the powers to be always against him, unwilling to see him for the morally superior being he truly is.
His nemesis, the ambassador - a middle-aged man who was never informed, apparently, that he can take his wife with him when he is sent abroad, and has, for that reason, basically abandoned his family and found consolation in the arms of prostitutes - only has one thorn in his side: the good priest who refuses to obey him (?), and whose main fault in his eyes is that he had built a church without asking for the Embassy's support. Of course, he also dislikes the fact that the priest calls him a Communist and that he reveals to the local Romanian community the "well-kept secret" of the existence of prostitution, a phenomenon the ambassador firmly and utterly publicly denies for some reason.
Sarcasm aside, in terms of acting, the movie is not bad. The cast, although very small, is rather convincing.
The true problem with this movie, though, is the scenario. The writing is superficial, un-researched, and fails short of being compelling. The characters are caricatures of real people, their motivations barely explored and impossible to truly understand.
While it's not the worst Romanian film I've ever seen, it is not one I either liked or would watch again.
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