Un pas în urma serafimilor

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!

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.

In all honesty, Vlad Ivanov's name is the only thing which attracted me to watch "A step behind the seraphim". The director is unknown to me and so are the rest of the cast, except a cameo by Anca Sigartau- I guess. But this review is not about Vlad Ivanov, excellent in his rendering a deeply corrupt and devious priest/teacher; all the characters embodied by this actor are flawlessly acted. I find it odd that I never heard about this film before, as if there was a conspiracy to keep it under the lid- I wonder why... What seems extraordinary is how this film tackles a delicate issue- religion always seems to be a delicate issue to deal with, especially when the approach is objective and critical. A high school for future priests, a community of teen- aged boys in the throes of adolescence, a teacher who is everything but holy, an environment reminding of the communist epoch, with its double standards for thinking and expressing oneself, a place where a wolf in a sheep skin's will prevails over the one most crucial element that should be taught- true belief for those meant to inspire simple mortals in church- the film is about all these tangled and tormented human beings. Although quite long, the film keeps you interested, almost on the edge of your seat so to speak, due to the relentless efforts of priest Ivan to play everyone else like puppets. Faith is only a facade, the boys start to realize it rather early in their formative years. It is all about getting information, either written under duress or obtained through confession and using it against one's enemies, it's about power and dominance. Without openly stating it, the film offers explanations concerning why so many priests fail to be convincing in the act of faith, why the Orthodox church is more about money than anything else. Confused teenagers, stern or even violent parents, a closed environment where lies, deceit and manipulation prevail, hypocritical or weak teachers- this is a destructive cocktail meant to impede the access to authentic faith, rather than be an incentive to believe and to preach it. Most of the cast are young boys, clearly not actors, but their acting is so compelling, their dialogues are so convincing- a rather rare bird in Romanian movies- the imagery combining smoothly the oppressive inside of the high school and the picturesque lands around it, these are all elements working together to make "A step behind the seraphim" a remarkable Romanian film. Kudos to the whole crew!

First: Not a movie about The Church. It's a great story about coming of age in a very specific and harsh environment, friendship and finding yourself. Excellent movie that shifts the approach about such topics in the Romanian cinematography. It's good to see a movie that doe does not exploit in a dramatic way the status quo of the Romanian society in the last 30 years, but tries to tell a real story. The music and cast are on point and Daniel's style is omnipresent throughout the narrative.

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.