Il padre che smuove le montagne

It's a decent movie on Netflix and it doesn't deserve a bad reception from audiences; the plot is decent and the cinematography is excellent; Romanian cinema has a lot of potential.

This movie explores the characters - their motivations, flaws and faults, against the backstory of their children going missing in the mountains.

Loyalty, connections, stubbornness, grief, are all displayed.

You may not sympathize with the characters, but you can empathize with - what would you do?

After reading a few reviews, seeing how divisive the father (admirably played by Mr. Titieni) is, I believe this movie perfectly underlines the greyness of life. On one hand you have an extremely powerful man going full Ahab in his quest to literally move the mountains (beautiful Romanian aphorism), alienating his family along the way, on the other hand you have the fearless leader capable of inspiring people and turning doubters into believers.

One of the best shot Romanian movies, one of the very few without sound issues, head and shoulders above the artsy fartsy empty works of some of the better known Romanian directors.

A new Romanian drama on Netflix. A wealthy father struggled against nature as he would not stop at anything to rescue his son, who was lost in the snowy mountain.

The synopsis really sounded like this movie would be an intense thriller. Instead, this was a deep and bleak character study of a father who tried everything to save his son. Going through Letterboxd and Rotten Tomatoes, I saw that many did not like this movie, and I believed that they did not understand the message.

The father character is not a nice person. He's an affluent man who tried to use all his wealth and connections while manipulating and coercing others to help him. For him, others' safety did not matter too much to him. This did not make the father a likable character in audiences' eyes. However, I still found this movie to be powerful despite its depressing color because it showed the resilience and obsession of a parent, regardless of how good of a person the parent is. It should not be surprising that even some of the most evil persons would do anything to keep their loved ones safe. The father character was selfish and a bully, but being on his shoe, I doubt that many parents would do any different.

As I said before, this is not some thriller or tear-jerking drama. It's very slow, and the ending would leave many unsatisfied and even annoyed. However, for me, this ending effectively emphasized the theme of how parents would never give up on their children. Even more powerful was the fact that the movie was based on a true story.

Overall, a unique drama about the power of parental love. 8.5/10.

The english title is kind of a giveaway - to be fair, I don't think you'd expect any different. The mood is set from the start and the cinematography is quite stunning. Of course for some this may feel a bit long. The pace and things happening are quite slow. But you'll either dig it or just find it annoying.

Acting is decent enough and if you go with the flow, the drama will get to you one way or another. That doesn't mean you have to agree with everything the (main) character(s) are doing. Still there is enough suspense to keep you invested until the very end - even if it may be a bit too long ...