A mother’s love proves unhealthily unconditional when tragedy strikes in the award-winning Child’s Pose

CHILD’S POSE: When her son kills a small boy in a car accident, iron-willed Cornelia will stop at nothing to save him from the consequences in this stunning character study.

THIS devastatingly focused Romanian drama took the film world by surprise last year when it knocked off a hot field to take out the top prize at the Berlin Film Festival.

Though its early scenes promise little, a single shock development sees Child’s Pose swiftly become a stunning character study of a woman whose love for her only child is unhealthily unconditional.

Luminita Gheorghiu is the formidable Cornelia in Child’s Pose.

Cornelia (Luminita Gheorghiu) is a sixty-something socialite who has just learned her son Barbu (Bogdan Dumitrache) has struck and killed a small boy in a car accident.

Cornelia clinically switches into protective-lioness mode the moment she hears the bad news.

A scene from Child's Pose, which won top prize at the Berlin Film Festival in 2013.

With a phone in one hand and a cigarette in the other, Cornelia is soon exploiting her powerful connections all over Romania’s capital, Bucharest.

Her motive is to ensure Barbu — an ungrateful and cowardly wretch in his late 20s — never faces the consequences of what he has done.

This iron-willed, near-heartless matron will stop at nothing to get her way. The cops turn out to be the least of her worries. They’re easily bought in that part of the world, apparently.

However, it’s trickier once Cornelia starts persuading all eyewitnesses to the tragedy they might be inclined to change their statements about what they saw that fateful evening.

And why, oh why, is she knocking on the front door of the dead child’s family home?

As brilliantly played by Gheorghiu, Cornelia is a real piece of work. Don’t try to understand her, but just try to take your eyes off her. Highly recommended for lovers of exemplary world cinema.

CHILD’S POSE (M)

Director: Calin Peter Netzer (Maria)

Starring: Luminita Gheorghiu, Bogdan Dumitrache, Natasa Raab, Ilinca Gola

Verdict: Four stars. A mother’s love needs some boundaries