2007
Romanian, subtitled in English
Human drama
Producer: Oleg Mutu
Director Cristian Mungiu
Artificial Eye
R2 DVD
Reviewer: Bob Estreich
The scene is Rumania in the closing years of the Communist regime. Otilia
(Anamaria Marinca) is a student in a technical school, and shares a room with
her naïve, scatterbrained friend Gabita (Laura Vasiliu). Gabita is pregnant.
Abortion is outlawed but Gabita must take the risk. She is well over four
months pregnant, but has told Otilia that she is about two months gone. Otilia
contacts a local abortionist, the rather mysterious Mr Bebe (Vlad Ivanov). They
arrange to meet in a hotel room where the abortion will be carried out and
Gabita will recover. Because Gabita is losing her grip as the time approaches,
Otilia is begging, borrowing or bartering for the necessaries of life for their
stay in the hotel. She is having her own problems with her boyfriend and leaves
some of the arrangements to Gabita, who screws them up. The chosen hotel,
preferred by Mr Bebe because of its discretion, has no reservation for them.
Otilia must arrange a room in another hotel, and fight the petty bureaucracy of
the hotel management to get even that. Gabita cannot face meeting Mr Bebe, so
Otilia must arrange that as well. This will require her to cut short a birthday
party for her boyfriend’s mother. Gabita has even left the necessary plastic
sheet behind. Otilia must also later clean up the mess and dispose of the
foetus. She is increasingly exasperated at her friend’s lies and general
refusal to help herself, but continues to support her.
Mr Bebe is not impressed. Neither are the girls when they learn that as
well as paying Bebe for the abortion, he expects them both to have sex with
him. Otilia sacrifices her dignity and agrees, to get her friend out of
trouble. Bebe checks Gabita’s condition and the lie about the length of her
pregnancy is revealed. Bebe points out that if the foetus is more than four
months old, the crime they can be charged for is not abortion, but murder. The
risk of problems and infection is great at that late stage.
After Bebe has had sex with both girls he carries out the abortion and
leaves them with detailed instructions about aftercare. Otilia leaves the hotel
to dispose of the foetus. On her return, Gabita has gone missing. She turns up
in the hotel dining room, unrepentant, where she has ordered a late meal
because she was hungry. She has also managed to take antibiotics instead of
aspirin for the fever she is developing. How much more can Otilia take for her
friend?
The film is one of the most dismal I have seen for a while. The city is
seedy and run down, shortages are evident everywhere, the girls appear to face
an uncertain future even after they finish their studies. There is no
contraception and little medical care. The bureaucracy has taken over
everywhere. The Communist world of the
film is stark, brutal and uncaring. In spite of this, there is a certain
element of human spirit that requires that you take care of your friends.
Director Mungiu decided to make a serious movie,
focusing on the problems of life under the Communist regime. In this he
succeeded, but still left room for hope of improvement if the people are up to
it. The film won a number of prizes, particularly at Cannes. The DVD has a good
range of extras including interviews with the director, Anamaria Marinca, and
the producer; “The Romanian Tour” featurette; plus alternate and deleted scenes
(Mungiu rewrote parts of the script a number of times while filming)..
This review will appear in Volume 2 No.2
(2009) of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.
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