In this drama set in Romania, when an incident occurs with a novice from a rural convent, a detective seeks answers.
The new movie “Miracle,” set in Romania, is technically a sequel, part of a planned trilogy from the writer-director Bogdan George Apetri. The first feature, “Unidentified,” also a police story, was shot simultaneously and still hasn’t opened in the United States. In a device that owes something to serialized literature and TV, and to filmmakers like Krzysztof Kieslowski, the principal characters of “Unidentified” turn up in walk-ons in “Miracle” and vice versa, and certain motifs (a ticking clock) recur.
The first 45 minutes or so of “Miracle” follow Cristina Tofan (Ioana Bugarin), a novice from a rural convent, who in one of many smoothly executed long takes furtively exits the convent and hops into a cab. The driver, Albu (Valeriu Andriuta), is the brother of a nun who has arranged Cristina’s transportation to a hospital. But the return trip goes violently wrong, in another sequence that the filmmaker captures in an uninterrupted take, with particularly horrifying attention to sound.
Like “Unidentified,” which broadly concerns a reprobate detective’s efforts to frame a Roma security guard, “Miracle” sometimes suggests a low-boil version of Abel Ferrara’s “Bad Lieutenant.” In its second hour, an ethically flexible inspector, Marius Preda (Emanuel Parvu), investigates the incident that caps the first part and grows steadily more enraged at his impotence in securing justice.
The film continually invokes tensions between secular and religious elements in Romania, and the concept of miracles turns up in a few contexts. Framed by scenes of weeping, the narrative does not entirely pull itself into a satisfying arc, but the film nevertheless unfolds with dexterity and suspense.
Miracle
Not rated. In Romanian, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 58 minutes. In theaters.
Source: Movies - nytimes.com
