*Spoiler alert
Cinema has always been a mirror of society, but also a way of shaping it. What we see on screen often does not remain merely a film — it becomes a way of understanding the world. That is why, when we talk about violence against women in film, we are talking not only about art, but also about ethics. Is this violence merely a reflection of patriarchal reality, or does it make that reality more acceptable?
The filmGod Exists, Her Name Is Petrunyaby director Teona Strugar Mitevska opens precisely this wound. At its center is Petrunya — an ordinary woman, educated but unemployed, living in a society where women are often seen not as subjects, but as problems.
From the very beginning, she faces a silent form of violence: exclusion, humiliation, and objectification. In a job interview, she is valued not for her knowledge, but for her looks. And here the violence is not loud — it is quiet, everyday, and that is exactly what makes it more dangerous. Then comes the moment that breaks the routine: Petrunya dives into the river and catches the cross during a ritual that traditionally 'belongs' to men. A simple act, yet one that in that society becomes a 'scandal.' Not because she did anything wrong, but because she touched an invisible boundary of male power.
And that is where the reaction begins: anger, insult, pressure. Not only from individuals, but from the system itself. The police, the media, the church — all of them turn the event into a debate, but not to protect Petrunya; rather, to 'solve the problem' that she represents.
But the film does not confine the violence to the event alone. It extends it even deeper: into the way society views a woman who steps outside her assigned role. And here the real question arises — are we seeing this as a critique of patriarchy, or are we simply growing accustomed to it? Because when violence is repeated on screen, when humiliation becomes part of the narrative, there is a risk that it will no longer shock us. That it will no longer seem unjust to us, but ordinary. And this is the moment when art crosses the dangerous line between reflection and normalization.
'God Exists, Her Name Is Petrunya' offers no easy answers. The film neither embellishes reality nor resolves it. It simply places it before us, laid bare, as a question we cannot avoid. And perhaps the most important question that remains is this: when we watch violence against women in film, are we understanding it as critique, or already as something that 'always happens'?
