A Higher Law

Octav Chelaru a participé au workshop LIM | Less is More en 2018 pour le développement de son premier long-métrage « A Higher Law » (Balaur).

Synopsis

Ecaterina, an attractive Religion teacher and wife of the town priest, gets involved with Iuliu, an audacious 16-year-old pupil of hers. He starts confessing to the priest.

Intentions

I have always been interested in how set beliefs seem to offer an explanation for everything. When I read a story that took place in my small hometown about a high school student committing suicide after a relationship with his religious studies teacher (also a priest’s wife), I thought it was a tragedy but that was all there was to it. Yet the story kept coming up in conversations with my parents who still live there. I found out that the whole community was supporting the teacher during her trial. Then it hit me, everybody knew. The level of hypocrisy was through the roof. I decided to make a film inspired by this story, trying to understand what lies beneath this seemingly in-control surface.