Irina wants to go to school, get her degree and escape her dysfunctional family. Liviu, her cousin, is a businessman who lives in a village. He doesn’t believe much in the importance of an education and finds himself at loggerheads with Irina, who would sacrifice anything to go to school. Early-twenty-something Irina lives and works in a small mountain village in Romania. Her family depends on her to balances the books for her family’s resort and property business, while her cousins embittered Liviu and Sergiu act as the business faces. Irina wants to start overdue studies in Bucharest, but her traditionalists and anti-intellectuals family members lean on her to stay put and help carry the business. Further patriarchal attempts to take advantage of her, in form of a married man sexually assaulting her, finally lead Irina to turn from victim into the abuser.
Alina Grigore's debut feature, winner of the top prize at San Sebastian, is a dynamic and impressive raw portrait of a troubled family.
Irina wants to go to school, get her degree and escape her dysfunctional family. Liviu, her cousin, is a businessman who lives in a village. He doesn’t believe much in the importance of an education and finds himself at loggerheads with Irina, who would sacrifice anything to go to school. Early-twenty-something Irina lives and works in a small mountain village in Romania. Her family depends on her to balances the books for her family’s resort and property business, while her cousins embittered Liviu and Sergiu act as the business faces.
Irina wants to start overdue studies in Bucharest, but her traditionalists and anti-intellectuals family members lean on her to stay put and help carry the business. Further patriarchal attempts to take advantage of her, in form of a married man sexually assaulting her, finally lead Irina to turn from victim into the abuser.