4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days [DVD]

Certainly the scenes in the hotel room involving the illegal abortion procedure and attendant demands and miseries are harrowing to watch and endure — even from the distance of the at-home viewer comfortably slouched on the couch or in the easy chair, in the shelter of the posh living room.As it should be. The film-makers all performed with such excellence that the viewer is drawn in and shares, feels, albeit indirectly, so vicariously, some of that unpleasantness, emotional turbulence, horror, pain … but remains safely detached: finally unperturbed, nonchalant. After all, it all took place a long time ago, in a land far far away. There’s nothing like it here.But for me, some of the most memorable, instructive moments — which try to drag the mind out of its ditches and comfy niches — take place at a nice genial dinner party in a comfy home among well-off, and very complacent, professionals — professors, doctors, etc.In the course of their self-congratulatory conversations we learn that most, perhaps all of them, had friends and acquaintances or themselves experienced illegal abortions and the surrounding anguish and injuries … Yet all seemed to have brushed aside the injustices, abuses, corrosive corruptions both social and psychological, injurious to psyche and polis — as if swept under a rug or shoved into a dark back corner of the mind's closet … only to be carefully, circumspectly alluded to now and then in safe surroundings.They had made their peace, decided to go on, go along and get along, conform to the hypocritical social situation and its humiliations, degradations, and not make much, if any, fuss, protest against prohibitions that push the vulnerable toward criminality and attendant miseries … which therefore will go on and on and on, perpetuated by hushed compliance. It becomes a rite of passage, humiliation, hazing for submission, conformity. This is what tyrannies depend on, everywhere.It can happen here in full force. Like Sargent Schultz of the POW camp, many of us will want to mostly “see nothing, hear nothing” … to make it back home at the end of the day to the beer and sausage and the easy chair and the game on TV. Others will convince themselves, Colonel Klink-like, of their imperturbable master status, and congratulate themselves aplenty.But our heroine prefers to not stay there long, and leaves them behind, to instead face the challenges waiting in the night …

In my opinion, Cristian Mungiu is the best product so far of Romanian cinematography after 1989- but that is just me, as despite a blatant lack of funding, there are obviously others and they are not bad at all.If you are not familiar with the historical facts, Romania was ruled by a communist dictator who in time edged closer to the North Korean style and could have been on track to set up the first communist monarchy in Eastern Europe if it had not been for Glasnost, Perestroika and Gorby kissing him on the mouth, like a good head of the family does for those sentenced to die, in 1989. "Last night, Kim shot me a beautiful missile". But I digress...In 1966, the newly installed dictator (he inherited the leadership in 1965) put out an edict forbidding abortion. Many women were caught off guard and as a result, unfairly maybe, children born in 1966/1967 are referred to as decretei which could be translated as edictlings. In time things went from bad to worse - those who performed abortions risked heavy jail sentences and women who were brought to the emergency room hemorrhaging would not be treated lest they divulged who helped them. Many women died because they were too poor to afford an abortion done by a doctor or paramedical and they were too scared to go to the hospital- so they stayed home and bled to death. In time, illegal abortions became both riskier and more expensive. This, among many other aspects of slime and abjection typical to the Romania of the terminal communist years of the 1980's and the plight of two university students one of whom is pregnant, represents grosso modo the subject of the film. Excellently directed, acted and scripted (some aspects of which are more difficult to sense for non-Romanian speakers or those not acquainted with the era). Truly dystopic yet real. As a side note, possible not only in Eastern Europe of the communist years.

Even in the daylight, the Romanian wintry setting is bleak & that bleakness suffuses the film's entire timeline which ends in the night. It's so bleak that you might forget this film is shot in color. But the atmosphere matches up with the harrowing mission of these two friends who share a dorm room, to get an illegal abortion for Gabita. True, in communist Romania these two young women of modest means live in an oppressive society where IDs are always necessary & bribes of black-market Kent cigarettes are always useful, their story is relatable to most American women who still struggle with their reproductive rights. Men who disdain condoms, women who acquiesce then find themselves pregnant & alone. The solution is practical--"I'm in no position to have this baby alone with no supporting family." But she'll have the baby in a sense anyway, contractions to push out an unviable fetus that then has to be gotten rid of. It's a story of 2 young women, nearly girls, who in taking control of their lives still find they must acquiesce to a man under conditions that deprive them of their dignity and who must endure the most horrible of abortions, pretty much DIY. The American film, Never Rarely Sometimes Always, is really a rip-off of this film.

You have to have some depth to your personality to appreciate this movie. But I found it gripping from start to finish. The acting was really good, amazing performance by Anamaria Marinca, extremely believable with lots of subtelty and nuance. Not a particularly uplifting movie, but you have to be impressed by the toughness of the main female character Otilia.

Romania, shortly before the break-up of the Soviet Union, sees university student Gabita pregnant. Her life must not be interrupted by this turn of events and, although illegal, she must terminate. She turns to her room-mate, fellow student, practical Otilia, to help but all is not as it seems. The title of the film is significant as Gabita is vague about her term and once Otilia has arranged everything, the sinister Mr Bebe turns up at the agreed hotel with his bag of tricks where things take a turn for the worse. Otilia's friendship is stretched to the limit as Gabita endures an experience we would all rather forget.Well acted, directed and filmed, this film should not be missed.The film wonderfully protrays helpful Otilia, with seemingly endless reserves of patience, so typical of many from the former Soviet Union, and Gabita who actually has the problem but seems incapable of meeting the challenge. Even the final act at the film's end is typically frustrating for both the audience and Otilia. But the real meat of the film is the meeting and subsequent events in the hotel room, although you may have to be quick to pick up what Mr Bebe is alluding too during negotiations, even though it all becomes clear later. Otilia's tasks, gruesome as some may be, are fillers and may have been filmed recently as if it were the 80's (including buses and cars). The acting would not have been hard for the hotel staff either. Some things don't change.An excellent film but look away if you are squeamish.

5 stars for very fast delivery worst film I have ever seen boring suffered it to the end as I thought it would get better put it in the garbage I would not hand this into a charity shop as someone else would have to suffer it just so so bad

The film conveyed its message effectively but it was, for me, too uncomfortable an experience to wish to watch it again

Quite a difficult watch and with an awful feeling of inevitability about it.The last scenes are hard to watch.

This is a five star movie. Yesterday I saw an item on Sky News about the coming release on DVD of Cristian Mungiu's 2012 film Beyond the Hills. I googled the movie and read that Beyond the Hills confirms Mungiu as a genius of modern film making. If Beyond the Hills is just nearly as good as 4 Months, I wholeheartedly agree with this judgement. Don't miss this one and wait with me for the next one.