[1] The film takes its title from the Byzantine monastery complex Metéora, in Thessaly, a series of structures built on natural sandstone pillars whose tops often disappear into the clouds.

The story looks at the struggle between religious devotion, temptations of the flesh, the yearning of the human heart, and the role of the individual within the community of believers.

The two communicate with each other across the valley using mirrors to flash a morse code signal, with lights dancing on the wall of her cell in the Agios Stefano Convent, also set on a rock pinnacle.

The film is set in Central Greece, where medieval monasteries perch on the apex of hugely dramatic sandstone pinnacles, and the main access is to be hauled up in a net tied to a rope.

The monks and nuns obey the rituals of the Greek Orthodox Church in this austere environment, remote from modern human life in every sense with the strong rhythm of prayer and asceticism.