“Beyond the Hills” begins with a woman walking on a train platform, going against the crowd. We might think the scene is a metaphor for the film to come: Perhaps this woman is a rebel who will challenge authority. It turns out, however, that the person she is walking to meet is the rebel, a woman whose very existence seems to challenge the ideas of the monastery in which the first girl lives.

Voichita (Cosmina Stratan) has arrived at the station to pick up Alina (Cristina Flutur). The two were inseparable growing up in an orphanage, but Alina sought a better life in Germany, where she’s made some money as a barmaid. She’s returned to bring Voichita back with her, but Voichita doesn’t seem enthusiastic about leaving the poverty of the monastery in Moldova.