Anamaria Marinca, Vlad Ivanov, Laura Vasiliu
How far would you go for a friend?
In small town Romania during the last years of communism: University students Otilia and Gabita share a dorm room together. It should be a carefree time for them both, but Gabita is pregnant in a country where abortion is illegal, as decreed by Ceaușescu. Hoping to rid her of her baby, Otilia and Gabita visit a hotel to meet with a certain Mr Bebe, but when they get there, their desperation only increases.
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days belongs to Mungiu’s larger artistic project, ‘Tales from the Golden Age’ – his attempt to tell a history of communism in Romania through stories about the lives of its inhabitants that focus on personal choices affected by broader political and historical circumstances, but which have no direct references to communism itself, and only depict the individual human frame.
Bleak, stark and carefully performed, it’s a forceful insight into the terror and danger of life as a woman in the absence of reproductive freedom.
