À l'Ombre des Séraphins

This was pretty good, I really liked how the producers realized everything. It was very thrilling, with some cliches, but, still, very good for Romanian potential. Good job for the crew, regarding the cast, most of the young actors played some interesting roles and the storyline is very dramatic. I recommend this for every movie enthusiast that is looking for something new, because, I repeat, this is Romanian cinematography and, it is far different from other countries.

The concept of corruption, greed and evil in a Theological college is an interesting one. The problem with this is the way the story is told. There is minimal dialog, the scenes are loosely linked so continuity becomes difficult, and most of the time, the script and dialog appears to be improvised. It is a low budget production, but one that could have been "glued" together much better!

From the first frame of the film you know that this will be a good movie. Don't get fooled by the title, this is not a movie about religion or church, it's about people that run religion, people that take advantage on religion and people that want to become part of religion. It's sprinkled with sex, alcohol and other deeds that a young man who aspire to become an orthodox priest should stay away from, but let's not spoil it too much.

There are a lot of great characters played by young skillful actors, but on top of them all sits the Vlad Ivanov who delivers a great performance and manages to take this movie to another level and proves again that he is one of the best romanian actors.

I recommend this movie especially to non-romanian people. It's a good peep hole to romanian church, corruption and culture, even more because it's inspired by a true story.

teenagers.between vocation and the desires of the age.forms of resistance against the pressures. an Orthodox seminary circle who reflects Romanian school system in many aspects. and the compromises. good music. admirable performances. the touch of personal experiences of the director at his first movie. and the trip across a world of survive. the easy verdict - a film against the Church. in fact, only the exploration of the geography of an age, with its clear perception about good and bad, with its aspects of weakness and idealism and a priest teacher and his recipe of successful control. the basic observation - new proof of the force of performance from Vlad Ivanov. the second - first step of a great generation of actors. and the ironic expression about appearances and expectations.not the last - the bitter humor. and the tension who remains good spice for a film who has the virtue to escape to the expectations.

I came back home a few hours ago from the cinema where I saw this movie and I still think about it. It made me write my first review so please don't be harsh. This was for sure the most interesting movie made in Romania (by far) - and I tried to watch them all! I had a lot of fun, the crowd reacted so good at this movie, it was for the first time when I felt like home at the cinema! The story shows the truth behind what can happen in a Priests school in a very intelligent and funny way. In some of the situations I even saw myself in high- school skipping school and run to the billiard club, all the smoking and experience sex from the first time. So many things happen in this movie that I even wish for a sequel or even a TV series based on this story. The performance of the young actors (and not only) from this movie was VERY credible. I recommend all of u who question themselves if this one worth to be seen to go and watch it and then, if they don't feel the same like me to answer this review :) I can't understand why I didn't saw advertising true the city about this movie, it's absolutely brilliant - other movies have huge advertising campaigns, but don't even worth the drive to the cinema.