ORIZONT

Light pours out across the barren hills of Transylvania as in a painting, brown, green and violet. A road winds its way between thick woods on either side. This is where Lucian and Andra have come to start a new life of wealth and abundance as proprietors of a rented resort property, with their son and Andra’s mother in tow. But something just isn’t right – the mood is sombre and although they manage to attract tourists to the remote area at first, they soon stop arriving. Sweet-tempered but stubborn Lucian is confronted with a mafia network whose tentacles have even managed to entangle loggers and local police. Little by little, the hotel becomes a sort of lodge in which the influential criminal Zoltan holds court, forcing Lucian to acknowledge his power and casting his spell over Andra too. Marian Crișan transfers Ioan Slavici’s famous story about archaic structures, corruption and the powerlessness of individuals “The Lucky Mill” to the Romania of today, where one family’s dream of a simpler life out in nature ends in a Kafkaesque nightmare. In calm images, with echoes of Haneke and Kubrick and a frighteningly intense soundtrack, this suspenseful thriller tells the tale of deeply human fears and passions.