Leading Rumanian director Dan Pita turns an orienteering contest in a Rumanian forest into an ordeal of psychological suspense and, ultimately, an ironic allegory. What starts out as a simple expedition becomes complicated when the party hears a mysterious cry for help and decides to ignore it rather than veer off course. They are joined by a young man whose sad eyes force them to slowly face their own alienation. “A dense parable, on the same wavelength and spiritual level as Tarkovsky's Stalker... Pita loads the daily reality of the locale with new and disturbing semantics. The wood--at the start a very real world...--dilates to the size of a symbolic space where a swamp, a dead tree, a cave, a spring etc. are signs of a meta-reality.... Superbly photographed...and with a fine group of actors....” (Manuela Cernat, International Film Guide)