RYNA concerns the young woman, who each day, gets up, puts on her overalls and a greasy tank top, and goes to work in her father’s rural gas station, fixing motors, changing tires and doing whatever else needs to be done. Disappointed that he didn’t have a son, her father forces her to keep her hair close-cropped—but as she heads towards maturity, Ryna’s own questioning of her identity begins to show through. When a passing French researcher develops an interest in Ryna that might go beyond the academic, family and local forces line up for an inevitable confrontation. Two newcomers—director Ruxandra Zenide and actor Doroteea Petre—combine forces for this probing study of the price of everyday oppression that’s also an incisive portrait of a rural community and its response to an “aberration” in its midst.

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First-time director Ruxandra Zenide talks about the film, working in Romania and the politics of filmmaking.