Few films have won as much praise and as many prizes as 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, from the Palme d’Or at Cannes to countless festival and critics’ awards. Set during the waning days of communism, in which everything seems tinctured slate grey, 4 Months centres on two young students in Bucharest, one of whom finds herself pregnant. Her roommate sets out to arrange an illegal abortion with the ironically named Mr. Bebe, and the travails of the two women as they navigate a harsh, unyielding world in which every act seems to exact a price—physical, spiritual, monetary—reveal with grim precision the nature of a totalitarian state and how it distorts everyday life. The acting, particularly by Anamaria Marinca as the determined friend and Vlad Ivanov as the abortionist, is superb, and Mungiu’s implacable sense of atmosphere—pitch-dark streets, bunker-like hotels, ashen apartment blocks—suggests a master at work. “Never surrendering its grip on the viewer, 4 Months is the rare film with gravity and speed—a moral tale in the form of a suspense thriller” (Dennis Lim, LA Weekly).

Rated 14A