Beyond the Hills

Director's Statement

For me, BEYOND THE HILLS is primarily a film about love and free will: mostly about how love can turn the concepts of good and evil into very relative ones. Most of the greatest mistakes of this world have been made in the name of faith, and with the absolute conviction that they were done for a good cause. BEYOND THE HILLS also speaks about a certain way of experiencing religion. It has always concerned me how much attention believers place on respecting religious habits and rules and how little on applying the essence and wisdom of Christianity to their day-to-day life, for example. Preparing for the film I carefully read the list of sins compiled by the Orthodox Church. There are quite a lot (464) and reading them, you cannot but ask yourself all kinds of questions. Still, there is a sin that is not listed but is amongst the most important things about which the film wishes to speak: the sin of indifference. Or maybe it is not a sin, since it’s not listed. But then what is it? Is it dangerous or not? The film also speaks about the various ways in which evil can manipulate people, and the subtle ways in which it can manifest itself. I wonder whether indifference is not one of them. Deep down, I hope, BEYOND THE HILLS speaks about options and choices in life deriving from education or from the lack of education, and about how many things in life derive from things you cannot influence, or which you are not guilty of: where you were brought into the world, by whom, and in the middle of which community.