GOD EXISTS, HER NAME IS PETRUNYA

Former history student Petrunya is 31-years-old, overweight and lives with her parents. Her prospects for the future are actually pretty grim, but that doesn’t dissuade her mother from pushing her to work and forcing her to attend dubious meetings with obnoxious potential employers. When one of these unfortunate encounters concludes with the would-be boss telling her that she is too old and ugly and her history degree doesn’t even qualify her to work as a seamstress, Petrunya finally gives vent to her frustration. It’s Epiphany and Petrunya is walking past a ceremonial procession. Traditionally, on this day the priest throws an anointed cross into the cold water of a river, whereupon throngs of young men dive in after it. However, this time Petrunya jumps into the rushing river too – only to pop back up to the surface cross in hand. Her presumably heroic act causes a genuine scandal that exposes rigid patriarchal structures within Macedonian society. With a healthy dose of absurd humour, Teona Strugar Mitevska brings a true story to the screen and manages, despite her own clear personal stance, to do justice to the complex nature of the subject.