the novel by Sadoveanu is a great temptation for a director. it has a high potential to create a fascinating , touching story, it is useful for explore traditions and believes and life rules and a wise story about justice. the film of Mircea Mureșan has only a sin - it is prisoner of too generous good intentions. that it is the motif who does it a kind of improvisation, mixture of colors and images and picturesque and spectacular and empty gestures/words, slices of words and crumbs of popular habits. the desire of director - to impress is the cage for the film. because all is reduced at images. many - real seductive. but the psychology of characters is ignored. the tension of the travel to the truth - a sketch. the force of the hope and feelings - pretext for few scenes who are only slices of village life. it is not the error of Mircea Mureșan but the result of habits in a different genre of film. it is not the error of Margarita Lozano as Vitoria Lipan ; she does a decent job in a role who remains out of her. sure, it is an if. the film was an old project of Liviu Ciulei. the role of Vitoria Lipan has, in this first project, Anna Magnani. but each of them represents only details.it walks on a different way than the original novel. in fact, that is all.
