A film about abortion in 1980s Romania is shocking but powerful, writes Michael Dwyer
GREY is the predominant colour in Cristian Mungiu's unflinching picture of life in late-1980s Romania, reflecting the grim drabness of that era before the fall of the Ceausescu regime. There is a whiff of pungent satire about its establishing scenes depicting a thriving black economy and an absurdly complicated bureaucracy.
The unswerving seriousness of Mungiu's intent becomes evident after two young college students finally navigate the taxing complexities of booking a room in a cheap hotel. And the significance of the movie's title becomes clear when we realise that it refers to the age of a foetus about to be aborted.
4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days takes place over a single day and night as one student, Otilia (Anamaria Marinca), helps another, her roommate Gabita (Laura Vasilu), to prepare for the illegal abortion. If discovered, Gabita and the abortionist would be imprisoned on a murder charge. Gabita is timid, fearful and confused, whereas Otilia is stronger and pragmatic, but no match for the gruff, steely abortionist, Mr Bebe (Vlad Ivanov), who ups his price by demanding sex with each of them in advance. They have no choice.
While this man methodically carries out the abortion, writer- director Mungiu challenges us not to avert our eyes during a chilling extended sequence, setting his camera in a fixed position to observe the clinical precision
of an operation that is scarily primitive. There is a far more disturbing scene to follow as Mungiu proves equally unsparing of his characters - and his audience - in this challenging, uncompromising film.
It is deliberately unsettling, and consequently difficult to watch, but Mungiu firmly eschews the options of sensationalism and sentimentality as he resolutely confronts the issues he raises - and his country's relatively recent history - with remarkable conviction and honesty. Those qualities are epitomised in the performances of his exemplary cast, and in particular the remarkably expressive and naturalistic Anamaria Marinca (a 2005 Bafta winner for the TV drama Sex Traffic).
4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days is the first film in Mungiu's proposed series, Tales from the Golden Age, a title which is, of course, ironic. It exerts the potent dramatic hold that charged Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's riveting picture of East German life in The Lives of Others. That film won last year's Oscar for best foreign-language film, an award which Mungiu well deserves to collect next month, having already received the Palme d'Or at Cannes last May.
The subtle lighting cameraman on Mungiu's film is Oleg Mutu, who distinctively photographed another highly critical picture of Romanian life in Cristi Puiu's The Death of Mr Lazarescu (2005), a caustic dissection of malaises in the country's health service.
Romanian cinema is in very good health indeed when it produces such probing and accomplished work, along with Corneliu Porumboiu's recent jagged political satire, 12:08
East of Bucharest, and the black comedy California Dreamin', the winner of another prize at Cannes last year, awarded posthumously to its director Cristian Nemescu, who was 27 and completing his film when he was killed in a car accident.
