Beyond the Hills Page #11

the house is filled with toys.

I called you because I have

here a death by violence.

She was brought from the convent.

Give me her ID.

Ringhis Alina.

Moved to Sintesti, Buzau County.

for some time now.

Two nuns from the convent brought her.

What should I do with them? Keep them here?

Fine then.

All right, bye.

God bless her.

Ionut!

Come, they want everybody

to be present.

Is everybody here?

Yes.

- So, you held the liturgy in the House of Holy Water?

- No inside the church.

Come and show me the exact place.

So, she was lying down

there and I was reading.

What did you read?

The Holy Prayer, The Prayer of

Holy Vasile and other prayers.

And she was quiet listening?

The nuns were staying with her.

- You held her by the hands, or what?

- No not by the hands...

- She was stretched on a board.

- How is that? Can you show me?

- Like this, just that she was on a stretcher.

- What stretcher?

We were bringing her with

a stretcher into the church.

Bring that stretcher here so I can see it.

Go bring it.

So, she was lying at the

liturgy on this stretcher?

She was tied up.

Did you tie her up, priest?!

She was very agitated and we

were afraid she might harm herself.

What was wrong with her, priest?

I don't know, Officer,

she was highly tormented.

- Satan was inside her...

- She had a lot of strength.

I don't understand how such a

thin girl had so much strength.

She practiced martial arts at the orphanage.

How do you know?

We were colleagues since the first grade.

This girl came to visit her, that

was the beginning of all the trouble.

Don't tell me, priest,

you tied her up on this?

Yes.

Don't break it, this is evidence, all right?

What did you tie her up with?

With some towels, and

on the towels some chains.

You tied her up on the

cross with chains, priest?!

What cross, man?

Looks like a cross to me.

Cross... The cross is

something sacred not this...

She was harming herself,

Officer, that's why we tied her up.

She wanted to throw herself into the well one day,

she was shouting to us that she'll kill us...

So we gagged her to stop her shouting.

- She was tied up just when we read in the church.

- Yes, that's all...

And after that where did you put her?

There, in the back, where I showed you.

And there she was

staying of her own will?

No. She was never released.

How long did you hold her like that?

Well, I think Thursday, we begun

reading the liturgy, right? - Yes, right.

Thursday.

Did you give her water?

More Holy Water.

Food?

I gave her some bread with tea in the morning,

but she didn't want to eat.

Why is this cross stinking like that?

We washed her, you know, but if she

was stretched such a long time, you can imagine.

Priest...

...this sounds nasty.

"Confinement followed by victim's death",

that's over 20 years in jail.

God forbid, but for what?!

- We prayed for her and all we wanted was her best.

- That's true.

You might have, priest, but you

can't just tie people up like that...

If she was banging her head on the walls

and almost burned herself, sure we tied her up.

The doctors at the hospital

tied her up too, you know.

All right, Mother, but this is not a hospital.

It isn't, but we take care

of people too, you know...

Priest, nobody said it was on purpose, but when somebody

makes a mistake, they have to pay, no matter what.

When there's a mistake, yes...

What do you mean, priest?

The girl is dead.

People don't die from prayers.

Neither from tying them up.

Then why did this girl die, priest?

I don't know, this is your job to investigate,

but I see that you already know.

What should I investigate

if she was tied up?

If you give a medicine forcibly to a child,

to cure him, how do you do that?

With a child it's different, priest.

This girl was also just like a child.

...But not YOUR child.

She had nobody else to take care of her.

She didn't have relatives, anybody?

She has a brother, we spoke to him before

reading to her, but he's in his own world, he's more...

Priest, if this girl was ill, do you realize?

How could I not realize?

Why didn't you take her

to the hospital then?

We took her to the hospital,

sure we did, and they gave her back to us.

And you thought

you're more experienced.

Not for illness, Officer,

this is a doctor's job.

I tried to cure the

cause of the illness.

Not all illnesses are in bones and flesh.

And yesterday morning

she finally was calm!

You don't know how she was, this girl.

Priest, I ask you: Do you think it's

anybody's fault that the girl is dead?

Only God knows, He's the

only one without fault.

We all make mistakes.

I might have my part of fault, I trusted

too much in my powers and I wasn't good enough.

Priest, it looks like we can't

solve it talking. We go...

You'll explain to the prosecutor everything in detail.

If you succeed to convince him, all right. My job ends here.

Let's go then.

Somebody else that was

present should come.

Mother, give to Mr. Valerica what we put aside

for the orphanage. - Yes, Mother.

Among you, who was there too?

Those ones who tied her up then.

- I think that's enough for the moment.

- Yes, we'll see after that.

- Should we take anything with us?

- There's no need.

May I come too?

All right...

You should have your IDs with you.

Sister, please, go and get them.

Don't be afraid!

God knows we never meant

harm to anybody, priest.

It seems to me you're afraid.

I'm not afraid, priest.

If God is with you, you

have nothing to be afraid of.

- Shall we go?

- Let's go.

- You mind if I smoke?

- No, you can smoke.

We have to wait a

while for Mr. Prosecutor.

I just stepped out and

you lit the cigarette.

I thought you'd be gone longer...

I met Gelu on the stairs and he told

me Mr. Prosecutor is away investigating a crime.

A boy killed his mother and put

her picture on the internet.

God forbid. When, today?!

In the morning.

His cousin called me, must

have been an hour ago.

Evil everywhere, you see...

Yes. Yes, sir. I'm downstairs,

in the street.

Yea, I just have to wash it

up a little, it got really dirty.

Yes, I'll do that, yes, yes sir.

Will this winter ever finish, sir?

It will pass, it will pass.

It will break all the

asphalt before it passes.

Eh, that's it now.

Yes, but...

Script and directing:

Cristian Mungiu

inspired by non-fictional novels of

Tatiana Niculescu Bran

actually inspired by a

true story that happened in 2005

proofreading TheLittlestJellyfish

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes