“4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days”

A week ago I went to Lincoln Plaza to see the acclaimed Romanian movie “4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days,” Cristian Mungiu’s latest movie. Some friends invited me and even though I had recently bought it and seen it, during my stay in Romania, I decided to go see it again, since the experience of watching a movie can be quite different in the cinema, as opposed to watching it alone in the comfort of your own home.  The movie won several awards, Palme D’Or at Cannes being the most noteworthy.

Judging from the numerous earned awards and by the people’s comments, I should say the movie is brilliant. I myself think it’s brilliant, even if it depressed me deeply. It’s not brilliant because of the fame of the actors or because of the flashy special effects or anything like that. Couldn’t be further from it. What makes it good is the realness of it. This is not the movie to make you jump up for joy. It’s certainly not the typical date movie, so don’t try to impress your girlfriend with it. Not gonna happen. It’s sometimes shot with a semi-moving camera, in a sort of dark cinema kind of way, so it takes some focused attention in order to watch it. 

The movie deals with the painful process of illegal abortion, during communist Romania, in 1987, two years before the fall of the regime. Considering I’m a woman, one that will have children sometime soon, for me, the movie was poignant and disturbing. And quite intense. Very intense actually. It throws you into the life of two female characters, one in particular, and reminds us, Romanians, the older ones especially (I was three and a half when communism fell, so I don’t really know how it was), of what communism was like. It reminds us of all the miseries of communism, of queuing for hours for meat, of the eggs ratio, of the limited schedule of light, hot water, of the rareness of oranges, bananas (if any?!), of the tremendous luxury of having a color TV or VCR, of risking jail if attending church, of the black market Arabs that sold soap and cigarettes, of the dark creepy unlighted streets, of the boredom, of the fear, of the desperation. These are aspects that most people forgot about and that nowadays seem ancient. For people my age, they never existed; they are part of a forgotten history, one that I never really knew. And even for those that were adults when Ceausescu ruled, even they forgot most of it, and take for granted everything they enjoy today, all that they didn’t have or weren’t allowed to have then.

The opening scene, a close-up on a fish aquarium, seems to be the metaphor of the movie.  The fish in the aquarium seem to represent the Romanian people stuck in a box, in a prison, in total isolation from the rest of the world. And the dorms portrayed in the movie were, according to my mother, exactly as in the movie, and it was perfectly normal then. I’m sure it’s still the standard of some dorms nowadays, except for the Arabs and the lack of hot water.

However, after having spoken with some adults, people now in their thirties and forties, they had something interesting to say, and to some extent, they are to be envied to have lived in those times. Growing up, they were happier than most kids/teenagers/youth today. Their childhood was genuine, it was the real deal. Everyone was more or less equal and people had more respect for the other and for one’s life. They enjoyed and appreciated every little thing so much more. Maybe they didn’t have the latest Barbie doll or Lego, but somehow, it was all much more beautiful.  And I can see their reasoning. In these times, what we are most concerned about is making money, buying that car, that house, purchasing a certain brand, hanging out with certain people, talking on our phones and instant messaging. No one really cares how the other is doing. And yes, children are much more isolated, even if they have a million more ways of communication, at the tips of their fingers. Everyone is competing at showing off something. And believe it or not, this is what has happened with Romania too. Even if it is fairly recent, the fall of the communist regime is long forgotten, and even if we have a long way to reach other standards of civilization, people have everything they didn’t have then and more, much more.  Romania has extended its boarders and horizons. Romania equals the European Union, Romania equals NATO, Romania equals democracy (or we like to think so). And this movie equals ancient history, a very true painful history, but ancient nonetheless.

And I assume the movie is even more shocking for a non-Romanian.

For those of you that haven’t seen the movie yet and want to see it, I won’t spoil the entire plot.

Romanians – I recommend you go see it.

Non-Romanians – the translation is sometimes bad. Some parts may not be very clear or very funny, since they are on very specific cultural aspects.

PS – Advice. Don’t indulge into a big meal before it; there is one scene in particular that is not what I would call pretty.