4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2008)

Unlike an American filmmaker who might get caught up in the politics of birth control, Romanian writer-director Cristian Mungiu crafts a nonjudgmental narrative of two 1980s college students negotiating a black-market abortion in 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days. There's something beautifully raw in his visual simplicity — no fast cuts, no close-ups — that captures the drab oppressiveness of the Communist regime and gray complexities of real life. EXTRAS In a doc, Mungiu says he filmed the disturbing bathroom scene two ways; ultimately, he abandoned his heroine's perspective for the lingering shot that haunts the whole story. A-

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