4 Luni, 3 Saptamâni si 2 Zile (2007)
Genre: Drama
Duration: 113 minuten
Alternative titles: 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days / 4 Maanden, 3 Weken en 2 Dagen
Country:
Romania / Netherlands
Directed by: Cristian Mungiu
Stars: Anamaria Marinca, Vlad Ivanov and Laura Vasiliu
IMDb score:
7,9 (65.579)
Releasedate: 24 August 2007
4 Luni, 3 Saptamâni si 2 Zile plot
"At what moment do we begin to live?"
Romania at the time of the last days of communism. Otilia and Gabriela are students; they share a room in Bucharest. Gabriela is pregnant. The girls make an appointment to meet a Mr. Bebe at a cheap hotel. He will perform Gabriela's illegal abortion. But Bebe refuses the students' money and wants to be paid in return.
Actors and actresses
Otilia
Găbiță
Domnu' Bebe
Mrs. Radu
Dr. Radu
Unireal Hotel receptionist
Gas pump attendant
Dr. Rusu
Receptionist Tineretului
Reviews & comments
Onderhond
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- 87623 messages
- 12889 votes
Not good.
I read everywhere here that the film does not immediately answer to the gloomy Eastern European cliché, but as far as I'm concerned the film does just that. It is as if the Dardennes have been reincarnated in Romania. Ugliness, poverty and desolation, spread over more than 110 minutes. Just sit down and enjoy it.
It's that the acting is still good, that's about the only thing that keeps this film going. Besides, it's just an accumulation of misery that drags on from start to finish. Visually it's a graveyard, the soundtrack is mostly absent anyway and despite the fact that the film wants to shock a little bit (with the fetus in the picture), that doesn't really work well either.
It also goes out like a night candle. It's all so emphatic and forced that a drama like this just doesn't do much for me. I don't think it's realistic either, but that's often the term that is used for this type of gloomy drama. In any case, I hope those people have a better life than depicted here.
1.5*
Translated from Dutch · View original
mjk87 (moderator films)
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- 14596 messages
- 4552 votes
Somewhat mixed feeling here. Somehow a well acted and beautiful film about the desolation in Romania at that time and especially the situation of women there. All this in peeling concrete flats, always wet and gray outside, sad suspicious people on the street and behind reception desks and little to make you happy. But as my summary already shows, it's not subtle and sometimes really too much, which even makes it look a bit like a parody. It probably wouldn't have been a hosanna, but so sad? The director often pushes on. That scene at that party is also unnecessarily stretched, just as I occasionally got frustrations from the film and the behavior of people that you sometimes wanted to scream that people had to act differently. Anyway, a film that sometimes frustrates is still better than a film that doesn't affect me, but it's not really positive per se. 3.0*.
Translated from Dutch · View original
Fisico
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- 10039 messages
- 5398 votes
Not the masterpiece I thought it was. That doesn't mean it isn't a good movie, of course. I have already enjoyed it. Well, there was not much to enjoy in this rather gloomy raw film. The theme of abortion is central, within the context of Ceaucescu's communist regime in the late 1980s. In line with Das Leben der Anderen (2006), there is also a kind of strange and frightening atmosphere of the controlling government as if it were a pretty soft version of it.
Inciting, undergoing or complicity in having an abortion is prohibited by the government and punishable by prison terms of up to 10 years. It doesn't stop Bebe, Otilia and Gabriela from carrying out their plan. It is also nice that the director does not necessarily take a moral standpoint. Everything is filmed very soberly, also very static and at times even a bit too long scenes where I spontaneously had to think back to Fien Troch's Kid (2012) .
The scene at the festive table, for example, is a good example of the moral feeling Otilia is struggling with. She did not undergo the abortion, but is at least as involved in the event. As the main character, the viewer sees everything from her point of view. The festive table confirms this, but this scene is too long-winded and too statically filmed to be any more interesting. It's a pretty austere film right up to the climax at the end. It was almost shocking and confrontational. I can have something in a movie, but I can imagine that someone else is not good at this. People often talk about abortion, but actually seeing it is something else. You are immediately confronted with the facts. It's clever what feeling Mungiu wants to convey to the viewer, but his film as a whole just doesn't follow.
Translated from Dutch · View original
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