Emanuel Parvu has fashioned the kind of competent if predictable drama that will tick the right boxes for festival regulars hungry for work that affirms their prejudices against bigoted hicks in all the fly-over countries of the world.

Though the movie is persuasive enough as an indictment of small-town religious fundamentalism and homophobia, it proves curiously incurious about Adi’s perspective, to the detriment of its own human pulse.

There are some interesting ideas here from the director and co-writer Emanuel Parvu about the legacy of communism on Romanian lives. But the primary narrative is weak, Adi is a non-character, and the film is often visually bland.

'Three Kilometres to the End of the World' is a tense and powerful portrait of queer repression in rural Romania. Strong performances and striking landscapes give it weight, but reliance on familiar tropes makes it feel less daring than it should.