The succesful debut of the Romanian film 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days at the Cannes Film Festival in 2007 was a great sensation in the cinematographic society. Although the new trend in Romanian cinema emerged back in the early 2000s (the most notable movies are The death of Mr. Lazarescu and California Dreamin'), it became internationally recognized only after Cristian Munigu's debut at Cannes.

4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days - the name of the film comes from the duration of the main character's pregnancy. As it is expected, the main theme of the movie is the illegal abortion during the Ceausescu era. However, it seems that director actually makes more emphasis on the settings - meticulous, scurpulous depiction of the mode of life in that times. While the main plot of the illegal abortion revolves, different minor sub-themes are also involved.

 It is doubtful whether this movie has to be considered as a strictly pro-abortion oriented film - Munigu's manner of theme disclosure is rather neutral, objective and straightforward. There are numerous dialogues between the characters, different opinions are expressed - nevertheless, the audience makes own conlcusion.

 The weak point of the movie are the superfluous and unnecessary scenes - lenghty, static, monotonous, frankly boring... The actual story of the illegal abortion could be expressed only in 30-40 minutes of the fim - all the other time is used for revolving the by-plots or wasted in the excessively lenghty static scenes.

 The inital idea of Cristian Munigu was to collect several stories from the Ceausescu's era - eventually, the illegal abortion was chosen as the single plot of the movie. Perhaps, it would be more rational to follow the initial plan - the needless details could be eliminated and the movie would be more dynamic.

 Anyway, it is a great debut and hopefully, Romanian cinema will have a favourable outlook. This movie is a worthy example of contemporary European cinema.

Recommended: Yes