4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007)

Directed by Cristian Mungiu. Starring Anamaria Marinca, Vlad Ivanov, Laura Vasiliu, Alexandru Potocean, Adi Carauleanu, Luminita Gheorghiu.

Stark, poignant yet unsentimental film chronicling the efforts of two college students (Marinca, Vasiliu) to obtain an illegal abortion in Communist Romania. Minimalist techniques, haunted physical expressions, and matter-of-fact dialogue create claustrophobic anxiety, with the intimate but steady handhelds giving the viewer the sense of being a fly-on-the-wall for an all-too-authentic horror, one which remains a reality for far too many women in the world. However, the harrowing subject matter isn’t the sole reason the film is so effective (it could have easily devolved into tract or exploitation, after all); there’s also the recognizable specificity of the scenario, played with unceasing naturalism, and resolved without pat explanations, catharsis, or shock. The issue becomes a little forced in a late scene when the abortion debate is raised at a dinner table, but a minor blemish in an otherwise bracing, compelling motion picture. Winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes; its failure to even get shortlisted for an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film directly led to members reforming the controversial voting process.

89/100