It was a sullen and gloomy winter day in 1987. The dark-grey sky was sweeping down overwhelmingly. Gabita, a college girl, found out earlier that she was pregnant unexpectedly. In that life-defining day, she decided to have a secret abortion. Then we have the story in <4 Months, 3Weeks, and 2 Days>. The question is, why secretive?
In Romania’s communist period, one policy was once implemented for a long time, namely the compulsory encouragement of childbirth. This happened during the regime of Nicolae Ceausescu. He took power in 1965,and the next year he abolished the legislation that allowed free abortion. In the name of enlarging the population and building up strength of the nation, Ceausescu enforced a series of regulations that strictly bans any form of birth control (Gradea, 2018). That is the notorious Decree 770.
Abortion, as the most common means, was legally prohibited and the violators would be sentenced and prisoned (Godeanu-Kenworthy& Popescu-Sandu, 2014, p.228). Other methods of birthcontrol such as using contraceptives were limited as well for women aging under 40 and have less than four children. At that time in Romania, not giving birth was a crime for women. In order to make sure the implementation of the rules, hospitals were monitored by secret police teams. Additionally, law executors entered various places like factories, schools, and institutions to supervise women to do gynecological examinations at regular intervals (Palmer-Mehta &Haliliuc, 2011, p.114).
<4months, 3weeks and 2days> is a story about abortion. To understand it we must put it under its historical context, which is the aftermath of Decree 770. Under strict state control, the only option for those women who didn’t want children was to take risk having illegal abortions, just as what Gabita did in the film. The risk is twofold.
Firstly, once caught, both the girl and the doctor would be severely punished. Therefore, in the film, this activity is done highly secretively. For example, Otilia meets the doctor at the street and they drive to the hotel together. The meeting place and hotels are arranged in advance and they avoid mentioning the word “abortion” or anything relevant.This scene even seems like two spies’ meeting. Also, after the abortion, the doctor detailly instructs them how to deal with the fetus in order not to be found by others
The second and the most fatal risk is the abortion surgery itself. Since it couldn’t be done by professional doctors, most of these illegal abortions were fumble jobs. As is demonstrated in the film, the whole process is done in a hotel room with simple equipment. The sanitary conditions are unsatisfactory, the surgery is done by some so-called “doctors” with unclear origins, and after necessary steps, this Mr. Bebe leave Gabita alone to wait for the fetus coming out despite there might be further problems to handle. Unsafe and unaccountable, that’s the real risks for women who take illegal abortions in Romania, and they lead to an increasing death rate among women. In over 20 years after the ban, the total number of women died from abortions were approximately 500000.
In this sense, <4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days> is a faithful depiction and reconstruction which shows how dicey and risky it was to have an abortion under the shadow of Decree 770. When shooting the abortion scene, most of the time the camera is positioned at a third-party perspective. It objectively records what is happening in that room without peering into any character’s inner voice, thus there is no sign of the director’s emotional tendency on this issue. Such shooting style reflects Mungiu’s attempt to be a storyteller rather than a preacher. He has no intention of doing any moral discussion toward the action of abortion, nor does he make any judgements about Decree770. What he really concerned is the two girls and he wants to display how their life are messed up and became so misery under the shadow of this decree.
What is worth mentioning is that although the plot is a story about abortion, this film is not limited to abortion. With its indelible negative consequences, Decree 770 has become a painful memory for a whole generation in many aspects. As far as I am concerned, what Mungiu tries to convey in this film are his thoughts and reflections toward the whole historical period.
The abortion law is an epitome, a metaphor. “Decree770 was not passed for health, ethical or religious reasons, but merely as anattempt to advance the state’s authoritarian agenda and to increase the country’s labor force.” (Gradea, 2018, p.298). Just as other intrusive regulations, this decree in essence reflects the oppression of an Orwellian state power with no consideration for autonomy or human rights. Through the lens of an abortion under the context of Decree770, Mungiu tries to reveal something bigger, namely the imprisonment, rigidness, and oppression in Romanian society under the communist regime.
His reflection is subtly conveyed in <4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days>, in this story that happened within one day. The first and most visible dimension is the oppression for women, which is contained in the story of abortion. Being constrained under the “oppressive discourses of nationalism, socialism, andpatriarchy” (Palmer-Mehta & Haliliuc, 2011, p.114), women tragically lose control of their own uterus. While there is a second fold of reflection. Mungiu deliberately broadens his lens to present a bigger picture in that historical period. Different characters in the film form a landscape of Romania society.There are young women like Gabita and Otilia struggling in predicament both interms of gender position and social status; there are vested interests under the system, just as the families of Otilia’s boyfriend, who enjoys their privilege and turn a blind eye to social problems and vulnerable groups; there are also small characters like the indifferent receptionists and security guards. They are the microcosm of those people working under the system who are detached, stiff and hostile. Additionally, the shabby streetscape and the dark tone throughout the film also metaphorically adds to the depressed atmosphere in the society.
As Parvulescu comments that after 2000, Romanian cinema were less angry and contained fewer intense satires compared to the last century. Instead, there was a deeper and more pensive reflection toward that history. “Cinema was now focusing on oppression’s spectral dimension-still ‘there’ but harder to pin down in the recesses of everyday behavior.”(Parvulescu, 2009).
Reference list:
Godeanu-Kenworthy, O., & Popescu-Sandu, O. (2014).From minimalist representation to excessive interpretation: Contextualizing 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days.Journal of European Studies, 44(3),225-248. doi: 10.1177/0047244114524148
Gradea, A.C. (2018). A psychoanalytical approach toCristian Mungiu’s 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days.Journal of European Studies,48(3-4), 295-307. doi:10.1177/0047244118801684
Palmer-Mehta, V., & Haliliuc, A. (2011). The Performance of Silence in Cristian Mungiu’s 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days.Text and Performance Quarterly,31(2),111-129. doi: 10.1080/10462937.2010.531282
Parvulescu, C. (2009).The cold world behind the window: 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days and Romanian cinema’s return to real-existing communism [Online]. Retrieved January 12, 2021, from https://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/jc51.2009/4months/
