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Politist, adj.
Interesting socio-political commentary. People familiar with the recent history of Romania would probably relate better to this film.
This film reminds me deeply of Johanna Billing’s project Magical World, where she filmed a group of Croatian children singing Sidney Barnes’ wistful & somewhat cynical song. I saw the video in a Viennese art gallery in 2007, & have never forgotten it since. Incidentally, Romania became part of the EU in January 2007. Police, Adjective brushes upon several aspects of a society still in transition after communist rule & integration into an expanded democratic partnership directed by Western European values. Croatia is a current candidate of the EU and is expected to be accepted into the EU in the next two years.
These are short journal entries I’ve jotted down for the past month. I’ve wanted to expand them but there’s really no time, so I’m leaving them as-is.
4 luni, 3 saptamâni si 2 zile
I had kept this in view for a long time without watching it, partly because the only other (former) Communist Eastern European movie I’ve ever watched is “Torzók”, which scared the socks outta me and still makes me feel nauseous everytime I think of it.
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days despite its cumbersome title, turned out to be a very good movie that I believe most women will be able to empathise with.
A college girl gets an unwanted pregnancy in Communist Romania, where abortion is illegal. She seeks the help of an underground quack who takes every advantage of her situation to exploit her. The protagonist of this film is the girl’s roommate Otilia, who ends up undertaking the covert tasks to help her pregnant rommate get her abortion, sacrificing herself to a ridiculous extent, simply because her passive, timid friend is “reluctant to” do the necessary work.
The audience are put in the perspective of “an outsider of an outsider” — we are constantly reminded of what I believe is Otilia’s motivation: “What if I am the one who gets pregnant?”, as Otilia goes through most of the ordeal as a proxy. This innovative cinematic technique puts us in the shoes of the victim with an incredible efficacy.
As mentioned, Russian and Eastern European films (especially those about the communist or post-communist state) tend to be rather gloomy, and so far I have seen no exception at all. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days is worth watching nonetheless, if only to remind us to appreciate what we have.
