»Figures like Teresa and Milena could easily be among us today: women who unsettle the structures that seek to discipline them.« Hana Jušić

Wind lashes across the Croatian mountains. A mysterious figure emerges from the darkness. Teresa, at once an outsider and bound to the family she has married into, does not speak the local language. Milena, abandoned on an isolated rural homestead by her shepherd brothers, is barely heard within her community. Between the two women, a fragile bond forms beyond words – carried by glances, gestures, shared labour and the possibility of an unbiased connection. An ambivalent, enigmatic figure, Teresa acts as a disruptive force: her mere arrival unsettles entrenched power structures, beliefs and family hierarchies. The film inhabits a space between historical Western, witch hunt and folk horror, where mistrust, desire and guilt slowly surface. At its centre is a patriarchal framework of faith, possession and control, where female bodies become canvases for projection. The mountains exert a psychological power: wind, stone and darkness shape the bodies and souls of those who must endure their vastness. Jana Plećaš’ penetrating cinematography, rugged soundscapes and a deliberately anachronistic electro score displace the action from its period setting, creating a modern, unnerving tension. With formal rigour and persistent calm, Hana Jušić depicts female solidarity as a quiet counterforce – and an intimacy that emerges where language fails.

Guest: Hana Jušić

German premiere

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