Cristian Mungiu’s Cannes winner announced the arrival of the Romanian New Wave and remains one of the essential films of recent European cinema.
Otiia (an outstanding Anamaria Marinca) agrees to take her friend to a cheap hotel so that Gabita (Laura Vasiliu) can have an abortion, carried out by the Viorel (Vlad Ivanov). The procedure is illegal in late 1980s Romania and the risk the girls run is dangerously high. But the focus of Mungiu’s film shifts between his compassion for the women and the hypocrisy of Romania in the last days of Nicolae Ceaușescu’s regime. The corruption, cruelty and double standards of this world are embodied in Viorel, an amoral chancer who cares for nothing beyond his own desires and greed. Winner of the Palme d’Or, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days skilfully balances dark satire with heartfelt emotion.
★★★★★ “A masterpiece of intimate desperation” - Peter Bradshaw, The GuardianThe Guardian’s Best Films of the Noughties: No 7
