It’s tough to recommend a movie as bleak as “Four Months, Three Weeks, Two Days.” It’s certainly not fluffy, escapist summertime fare. However, the movie, which won at the Cannes Film festival last year, does what great films should do– it raises significant questions about the dignity of human life . It also bears witness to a human tragedy that has probably already been forgotten by too many people.
So while I can’t make it my DVD pick for this week, since I realize the film might be too much for some, I do recommend checking out the newly released DVD if you are interested in a well-crafted, challenging drama that can be a great discussion starter.
“Four Months” gives a slice of life glimpse of some of the horrors of the Communist regime of Romanian leader Nicolae Ceau?escu in the 80s. Part of Ceau?escu’s policies involved basically no access to birth control or abortion partly because it was part of a hope to make Romania a superpower in Europe.
The ramifications of the policy are examined in a personal way through the lives of two college students, Otilia and Gabriela. Gabriela is pregnant and wants to arrange an illegal abortion and can’t do so without the help of Otiia and her boyfriend. They help scrounge up money and make an appointment with a scary man at a seedy hotel. A tragic series of events occurs, even as the women must pretend that nothing is wrong, for fear they will be found out for their illegal act.
The movie is never as political as you might think it is going to be, and it doesn’t take sides on the issue of abortion in the way you would think either. If anything, it is a harrowing, cautionary tale of what happens when life is not respected on a variety of levels.
