4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days

Gabita and Otilia are room mates and university students in Romania. A substantial period elapses before we learn that Otilia is currently engaged in helping Gabita to procure an illegal abortion. The prerequisites for this project are cash, a hotel room and a “surgeon” to carry out the procedure. Transactions in the women’s university dorm’s black economy are carried out through the exchange of cash and American cigarettes. In a short time, the film shows promise of presenting a historically accurate (that is to say, highly convincing) depiction of life in 1980s Bucharest, a promise which, by the end of the film, has clearly been fulfilled.

Events unfold at a slow pace, but the plot is gripping and the acting is of a high standard. The film is structured around several long scenes, some of which derive their lengthy feel from the single camera set up. Some intensely dramatic scenes include a dinner party, and the women’s discussion in the hotel room. The former is a busy scene because there are four characters in the frame and it is difficult for the audience to catch every nuance and facial expression. In the latter scene, the frame is Otilia’s features fill the frame and while Gabita delivers her lines off-camera in a mousy, wheedling voice which, although irritating, contributed to her characterisation.

The characters are portrayed as whole, rounded, individuals, not omitting their shortcomings or the more unpleasant aspects of human relationships, such as Otilia’s reluctant sacrifice which she endures to help her friend, the breakup of Otilia and boyfriend (who is very well portrayed here), and the snobbery of one of the surgeons at a dinner party.

Otilia is the main character, in that she has most screen time and it his her role in the events that are depicted most completely. We follow her as she goes about completing the necessary tasks to facilitate the abortion, which involves meeting the surgeon, assembling the required funds and renting the room (the latter being no easy task). She also has to deal with her boyfriend who pressurises her into attending his mother’s birthday dinner on the same night as the abortion.

The film is of great historical interest, and conveys the crippling effects of a bureaucracy which oversees a society subjected to rationing, queues in shops, black markets, widespread bribery, and a fear of the police. This overall impression accompanies, following an incidental fashion, the central abortion storyline. In this way, these facts of Romanian life are subtly conveyed, a case in point being the way in which we are prompted to observe the eyes of the mother of Otilia’s boyfriend, as they keenly and surreptitiously note the size of wine measures her guests pour themselves from her limited cellar.

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