I saw the Romanian movie “4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days” (originally called “4 Luni,3 Saptamani, 2 Zile”) a while ago and it was beyond amazing! It has such a deep, strong message, it looks so real, it makes you feel like living through the characters, feeling their pains and desperation. And yet, it’s not about what you see, but what it doesn’t show, making you figure it out by yourself. I was literally blown away! You must see it! MUST MUST MUST! Makes me proud to be Romanian.

And even though it didn’t make the cut for The Oscars, in my opinion (and apparently in all major American film critics’ opinion; read the full post for their incredibly positive reviews) it proves that talented people can accomplish masterpieces with a very low budget, no matter what country they are from. Creativity knows no boundaries and that is inspiring, no?!!

“During the final days of communism in Romania, two college roommates Otilia (Anamaria Marinca) and Gabita (Laura Vasiliu) are busy preparing for a night away. 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. The title refers to how far along in her pregnancy Gabita is when she sets out to terminate it; the film is set in 1987, more than 20 years into the dictatorial regime of Nicolae Ceausescu, under whom abortion was outlawed. Transpiring over the course of a single day, Mungiu’s film is a masterwork of modern film making, by parts poignant and shocking. Nominated for 4 European Film Awards including Best Picture and one of the standout hits of the Telluride, Toronto and New York Film Festivals, 4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS AND 2 DAYS (4 Luni, 3 Saptamani si 2 Zile) is a modern classic that will stay with you long after you’ve left the theater.”

<<New York Times

4 Months deserves to be seen by the largest audience possible, partly because it offers a welcome alternative to the coy, trivializing attitude toward abortion now in vogue in American fiction film…Mr. Mungiu never forgets the palpably real women at the center of his film, and one of its great virtues is that neither do you.

Entertainment Weekly

The action takes place over the longest 24 hours in the lives of fellow college students Gabita (Laura Vasiliu) and her roommate, Otilia (Anamaria Marinca, who’d win an Oscar in my ideal universe). Gabita is the pregnant one; she’s also the more childlike one, nearly paralyzed with fear. So it falls to Otilia, the more resourceful one, to arrange for a termination — raising the cash, procuring the abortionist, and booking the hotel in which the terrible business can be done…Misery is everywhere in this spare masterpiece, but so is artistic triumph.

New York

Otilia’s powerlessness is more and more palpable, and as she struggles to keep her focus, the camera remains transfixed. So do we. It’s 1987, two years before the overthrow of the Stalinist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, a time of shortages and cynicism, and Otilia’s dogged composure becomes increasingly heroic. We want her not just to survive, but to survive with her humanity intact.

Village Voice

The abortion is the ultimate violation of Gabita’s body–and not just hers. The procedure is shown in an unflinching single take. How do these Romanian actors train? As in Lazarescu, the ensemble scenes are mind-boggling, and the principle performances get at an authenticity beyond naturalism.

New Yorker

For all the lack of overt political suppression in the film, something about the dulling of basic courtesies tells us everything about life under the totalitarian grind. Otilia, standing at the check-in desk, might be a lover, wearily seeking refuge for a tryst. In fact, she is dealing not with love but its consequences. And the love isn’t even hers.

Rolling Stone

In a coda, set in the hotel restaurant, Mungiu gives us a moment to let the themes of the film resonate. He knows that in Romania today abortion is a common form of contraception and that being pro-choice doesn’t make him an advocate of the easy fix. It’s the tension between those two poles, movingly readable on Marinca’s face, that deepens the film’s meaning and raises it very close to the level of art.

Los Angeles Times

The reason “4 Months” has such resonance is because it believes with fearless audacity in the power and possibility of the medium. Writer-director Mungiu has an almost old-fashioned faith that film can explore the most painful subjects, ask the deepest questions, deliver the most important meanings.

Variety

Foremost among the many revelations is Marinca’s stellar turn as Otilia. It’s not just the way she transforms scripted dialogue into real-speak (a quality shared by the rest of the stellar cast), but her ability to convey all her inner struggles in silence. Vasiliu is equally fine, a frightened young woman desperate to end her ordeal. >> [via: Jezebel]