[68] Television stations and an airline also wished to censor the fetus shot. [33] A scene showing Găbița visiting her father (played by Costica Babu) was deleted for narrative purposes, given Otilia is the protagonist. Doctors Jo Wilson, April Kepner, and Andrew DeLuca share the episodes they think are essential to understanding their characters. [32] Mungiu compared his style more to those of Miloš Forman and Jiří Menzel, though he said he was influenced more by certain films than by a director's general filmography. [24], In setting out to write the screenplay, he intended the focus to be less on the abortion, and more on the time and its people. Otilia sits and tells Găbița that they are never going to talk about the episode again. Magnificent to follow as its character has its own life, its like a concatenation of first plans one near the other.In another memorable scene Otilia runs in the night to get rid of the aborted child. Romania, 1987, the brutal Ceausescu communist regime is in place; birth control is illegal and abortion is a crime punishable by death. [48] Essayist Adriana Cordali Gradea suggested that silence is a theme of the film, and that citizens of communist nations would use silence to endure and resist. One of them describes a family dinner, where the principal character, a student from a lesser means family arrives invited by her boyfriend. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (Romanian: 4 luni, 3 săptămâni și 2 zile) is a 2007 Romanian art film with drama and thriller elements, written and directed by Cristian Mungiu and starring Anamaria Marinca, Laura Vasiliu, and Vlad Ivanov. The lack of a score can also be seen as contributing to a sense of pending danger. [21] She had experience on stage, so the lengthy takes were agreeable to her. Avram reported on 15 towns, with the most viewers in, Romanian Communist Party General Secretary, economy of the Socialist Republic of Romania, San Sebastián International Film Festival, List of accolades received by 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, List of Romanian submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, List of submissions to the 80th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film, "4 Luni, 3 Saptamani, Si 2 Zile - 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007)", "4 Months, 3 Weeks And 2 Days (4 Luni, 3 Saptamini Si 2 Zile)", "My favourite Cannes winner: 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days", "Time Warped: 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days: Take Two", "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days Director Cristian Mungiu Interview", "Decade: Cristian Mungiu on '4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days, "Laura Vasiliu - 'Cred in povestile fericite, "Historical Context of Mungiu's Movie 432", "The cold world behind the window: 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days and Romanian cinema's return to real-existing communism", "Heartbreak Hotel: Film of the Month: 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days", "A Miraculous Frame: 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days: Take Three", "Fipresci Grand Prize to Mungui's '4 Months, "Remembering the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival", "4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days to be Shown in French Schools", "DVDs: '4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days'; 'Burn Notice: Season 1'; 'Californication: Season 1'; 'Fool's Gold' and more", "The choice ... and the cost: 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days", "Review: Cristian Mungiu's 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days on Criterion Blu-ray", "Metacritic: 2007 Film Critic Top Ten Lists", "Metacritic: 2008 Film Critic Top Ten Lists", "Friend Indeed Who Doesn't Judge or Flinch", "Best films of the noughties No 7: 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days", "Romanian director wins top prize at Cannes", "Oscar Omissions Provoke Outcry, In Any Language", "Romania's Oscar entry 'Beyond the Hills' director", "Foreign-language Oscar nominees portray true grittiness", "From minimalist representation to excessive interpretation: Contextualizing 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days", "Cristian Mungiu, Auteur-Director 'Twenty Years After': Strategies of Translating the Past on Screen (4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days and Tales from the Golden Age)", The Tragedy of Othello: The Moor of Venice, Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Foreign Language Film, The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover, Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Foreign Language Film, National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Foreign Language Film, New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Foreign Language Film, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Foreign Language Film, Vancouver Film Critics Circle Award for Best Foreign Language Film, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=4_Months,_3_Weeks_and_2_Days&oldid=1021094714, Articles containing Romanian-language text, Wikipedia articles with WorldCat-VIAF identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 2 May 2021, at 21:41. It's one of these long and cold nights into which Romania was plunged at these times because of electricity savings. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days Directed by Cristian Mungiu. [18], Responding to analogies to the Dardennes' style, Mungiu said in 2008 that he had only seen their La Promesse (1996) but was now interested in seeing more, and that he had asked the brothers to attend a showing of his film. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days 4 luni, 3 saptamâni si 2 zile (original title) Not Rated | 1h 53min | Drama | 14 September 2007 (Romania) No mannerism, no melodrama, no make-up - the actress is just living the character of a girl ready to sacrifice everything to help her naive and maybe a little dumb friend. [71] In Region A, The Criterion Collection released a Blu-ray in 2019. Women will resonate with the story of the imposed tragedy at a personal and national level resulted from the anti-abortion policies in Communist Romania, and one cannot say it's only a pro-choice movie, it's a real indictment. Gabita (Laura Vasliu) is almost five months into an unwanted pregnancy and in meek desperation turns to her friend and roommate, Otilia (Anamaria Marinca) for help in organizing an illegal termination. [11] When Otilia is searching for Mr. Bebe, there is also a line of people visible in the background queuing for food, reflecting the lack of food security in the 1980s. Young and impulsive Rosetta lives with her alcoholic mother and, moved by despair, she will do anything to maintain a job. She turns in desperation to her roommate Otilia, who agrees to help her, and does. It tells the story of two students, roommates in a university dormitory, who try to procure an illegal abortion. But rather than planning for a holiday, they are making arrangements for Gabita's illegal abortion and unwittingly, both find themselves burrowing deep down a rabbit hole of unexpected revelations. Georges and Anne are an octogenarian couple. [47] Jump Cut writer Constantin Parvulescu stated "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days provides an astute balance of ostalgia and anti-communist memorial". She had performed on television, but had not appeared in a film before. Romanian Communist Party General Secretary Nicolae Ceaușescu enacted the abortion law Decree 770 in 1966 in order to increase the birth rates in the country. When Găbița becomes pregnant, the two young women arrange a meeting with Mr. Bebe in a hotel, where he is to perform an illegal abortion. After the argument, Otilia calls Găbița from Adi's house. [82] Jean-Baptiste Morain of Les Inrockuptibles remarked on the film's powerful emotions, and credited Mungiu with managing to do much with little. 2007, Drama, 1h 53m. Cast information Crew information … This changes the procedure and also adds the risk of a murder charge. [59] In Empire, Damon Wise gave it five stars, positively reviewing the cinematography, colour scheme, and the depiction of the black-market terror created when something is outlawed. After making its world premiere at Cannes, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days made its Romanian debut on 1 June 2007, at the Transilvania International Film Festival. [23] He hoped that basing the story on a factual account would also distinguish it from previous Romanian films: I remember watching many propagandistic examples of Romanian cinema and thinking nothing like that ever happened to us. [63] By 8 September 2008, IFC Films reported a solid financial performance for 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days in the U.S., with a gross of $1.2 million. Need some help finding the best things to watch on Netflix? [64] That month, it also screened at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival. [21] Though he had heard it from a friend 15 years prior to the film, the incident occurred five years before that, in 1987, a date that Mungiu noted in the screenplay. [39], Professor László Strausz said that the film emphasises the ways that Romania's abortion laws inflicted humiliations on the protagonists, particularly between people of differing authority and sex. The bleakness of the storyline expresses a dark socio-political critique in the twilight years of a repressive dictatorship. After speaking with Găbița on the telephone, Otilia goes to a rendezvous point to meet with Mr. Bebe, although he had asked Găbița that she meet him personally. Summary: During the final days of communism in Romania, two college roommates Otilia and Gabita are busy preparing for a night away. Essays — Jan 25, 2019. Production designer Mihaela Poenaru drew on her recollections of the period to prepare the locations. [73] By 11 November 2007, it had over 300,000 admissions in France. by Boyd van Hoeij. Two college roommates have 24 hours to make the ultimate choice as they finalize arrangements for a black market abortion. Yet shattering as it is, we are left in a spirit of hope. Găbița does not answer, so Otilia decides to return to the hotel. [22], Due to Mungiu saying Romania did not use streetlights in 1987, Mutu considered other ways to light the final scenes, where the camera would move with Marinca for 200 metres. Strange events happen in a small village in the north of Germany during the years before World War I, which seem to be ritual punishment. Currently you are able to watch "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days" streaming on BFI Player, BFI Player Amazon Channel. [21] Anamaria Marinca had not worked with Mungiu before reading the screenplay, and found the story intriguing. 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