4 mesi, 3 settimane, 2 giorni

Chritian Mungiu delivers one of the finer suspense films in the past few years. Set in Ceausescu's grim murderous police state, I was reminded of Polanski's shocker "Repulsion" albeit without the Gothic thrills. It's a loaded subject matter of abortion that sets the scene, but we aren't asked to take sides in someones polemic. The nightmare that unfolds is probably played out often, and that's the movie's genius. We identify quickly with the dilemma even though the bureaucratic maze the characters have to bribe and finagle there way through is in extreme.

The smallest details are accurate and riveting, from the possibly dire consequences of not paying a bus fare to eavesdropping on a conversation between a mother and her son that's suddenly interrupted by the sound of gun shot, the protagonist here (and what a courageous beauty she turns out to be) has nerves of steel that any action hero would envy.

It's our loss that this may be the only time we get to see Anamarie Marinca perform. She's nearly in every shot in the film and her unsteady conviction to her friend who is seeking an abortion is mesmerizing to watch. Her foil, Laura Vasiliu, is maddeningly dense and just as effective as the girl who's so lost in her dilemma that you can't tell if her judgment is impaired by her predicament or she's simple-minded. It's a touching performance that's also infuriating because of the dangers she sets in motion all around her.

The mise en scene here is one of a master. Midway through the film, there's a stunning set piece where Marinca and her boyfriend are full screen at a party, the camera never moves and they don't speak a word while adults chatter all around them while only occasionally hands enter the frame. The tension that results is almost unbearable when a telephone rings off in the distance, and Marinca is unable to move to find out if it's a desperate call for help...or simply someone calling to wish Happy Birthday.

There are many, many such fine moments in this movie. It shows that horror isn't necessarily the boogie man or a creature from outer space. It can be of our own making, both individually and by the government that rules us.

Cristian Mungiu's film is the most successful in what is called the Romanian Cinama New Wave, although it's not the very best in my opinion. I liked more 'The Death of Dante Lazarescu', and even 'California Dreamin' (Nesfarsit') had better chances from start. And yet '4-3-2' succeeded better than other because it vibrates different chords in the viewers souls and on different planes. 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. If one is interested in recent European history he may see the results of what communist propaganda named the Golden Age, an apocalyptic landscape of cold, dark and loneliness. If you are Romanian and lived these times you may feel you returned in time and the end of the movie may seem the awakening from a recurring nightmare.

And if you are a fan of good cinema you will admire the virtuosity of a director who learned perfectly the lessons of Jim Jarmusch and DOGMA and transfered them in the East European space. You need the hand of a master to create those those long shots in which every detail is in place, camera, actors, lights and voices. I see from time to time older Romanian movies where I observe not that much the lack of technical means in the 70s or 80s, but more the lack of capacity of the directors to compensate this disadvantages with simplicity of concept and turn them into quality as other directors from less privileged schools of cinema have done. Well, the last films of directors like Mungiu or the late Nemescu I could see a jump ahead in quality of expression that takes many generations for other film schools.

There are many memorable scenes in this film. One of them describes a family dinner, where the principal character, a student from a lesser means family arrives invited by her boyfriend. It's his mother's birthday, and they have as guests two couples of friends from the local mid-upper class. The scene is a nine minute shot with fixed camera, focusing on four characters sited at the head of the table, with a few others voices being heard from out of the screen space. She is in the middle, and obliged to listen and participate, but she wants to be some other place, near her friend who just underwent an illegal abortion. Every minute may be fatal for the life of her friend. The dialog is not meaningless, it is a short novella on its own about the art of compromise necessary for survival in a dictatorship. And yet, she is there and is not there - all looks like a Da Vinci painting, with Jesus sited among the apostles, but already in a different spiritual reality. 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. It's one of these long and cold nights into which Romania was plunged at these times because of electricity savings. She runs on the streets scared, scared not that much by the shades of the night but by the proof of the 'crime' she is carrying and which can incriminate her for many years of jail if she is caught. Best horror scene of the year in my view.

Anamaria Marinca is superb in the role of Otilia. 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. It is by this humanity of the simple people that dictatorship can be survived at the human level the film seems to say.

'4-3-2' is a candidate for the best foreign film at the Oscars, but I am afraid it will not get the prize. The film starts slowly and needs patience to get the sense, and many jurors may not get over the first third. The interest for East-European cinema is decreasing, it's not such a new thing any longer, and Romanian cinema is little known out of Europe. Anyway, Oscar or not, this film is simply good, and it demonstrates that the Romanian cinema passed the period of transition and it's time for maturity. It's now even harder, as Romanian directors will need to find the inspiration to make films that do not look that much into the past but still can catch the interest of the local and international audiences. It will be interesting to follow.

It's 1987 Romania under the brutal Ceausescu communist dictatorship. Gabita (Laura Vasliu) is more than 4 Months pregnant and she's desperate for a highly illegal abortion. Her friend Otilia Mihartescu (Anamaria Marinca) searches all day setting up the abortion with Mr. Bebe. He starts complaining about them not following his instructions and demands more money which the girls don't have. Then he wants sex from both women as payment. After the abortion, Otilia has to go to her boyfriend's family dinner while Gabita waits in the hotel for the abortion to take hold.

This Romanian indie is done in long extended shots. Some of them are slow but mostly, they are very engaging. Some of them are harrowing. It takes its time to get to the point of the movie. The world in this film is a cold hard place. The style of the film only adds to its harshness. There is no pretty camera tricks or beautiful shots. It's a bleak film of a bleak world. The acting is natural and stark. The movie follows Anamaria Marinca. She is mostly unemotionally as she quietly suffers the indignity of Bebe. She shows that she has a good range and she's compelling as the lead. Laura Vasliu's role is a minor one where she can be more emotional. The movie is unrelentingly in its casual bleakness.

I'm in awe with 'realist' films, especially the one that actually works such as this one. In the climax track shot of walking through the city at night, how do they stage all the noise, the dog, the cars, the everything? It's crazy that i'm super impressed by how organic and realistic it is. Which is odd, because usually i go to movies to see how clever a filmmaker can be with twisting reality. But this was clearly magic to have been able to present a simple act (walking) in a simple composition (face dead center), with all of the familiar elements of nighttime in the city, and brought it all together to heighten the experience of this girl carrying what it seems like, all the worry in the world. It brought me back an almost childish/immediate feeling of being afraid walking alone at night, but of course compared to film, i've never walked alone at night with that much at stake.

But this is where the movie is most successful, the film presents you with people living in a type of harsh system that i can't imagine here living in the states. But the feelings and emotions that are portrayed are universal, the feeling of being young and afraid, feeling of sneaking behind the law, risking something for your friend , feeling of regret. And in this film the moral compass is clear, they know the system is unjust and they do things out of love and care for one another.

But for us here in the states, where government and law has seeped itself into everything, where we don't sometimes realized our own systematic oppression, how much of our sense of right/wrong is driven by government and the law? how much of it is actually driven by love and passion for real people?

The story is a very simple one. It's 1987 in Romania and abortion is illegal. Pregnant student Gabita and her roommate Otilia check into a cheap hotel where a backstreet abortionist called Bebe is going to deal with Gabita's problem. Under Romanian law, the degree of illegality depends on how long Gabita has been pregnant: on this subject, as on most others, she is worryingly vague. Very cleverly, the writer makes Otilia, the more resourceful of the girls, the protagonist. Otilia needs all her courage to deal with the suspicious hotel staff, to meet Bebe's demands, to evade the police and jail. The obvious words to use are spare, direct, realistic. The suspense generated is astonishing. The question of whether abortion is right or wrong is irrelevant to the psychology of the film - all that matters is that it is dangerous. I have great sympathy for all those Romanians who have written comments on this site, complaining about the portrayal of their beloved country. However, I believe that this film reflects well on Romania today. It's certainly a much more sophisticated and honest film than Vera Drake, which was hideously sentimental.