The friendship between two girls is tested to its absolute limits in this drama set in the twilight years of Communist-era Romania. Gabita (Laura Vasiliu), young and naïve, is pregnant. She turns to her room mate Otilia (Anamaria Marinca) for help and a meeting is arranged in a downtown hotel with the shady Mr Bebe (Vlad Ivanov). Entering a dangerous and illegal underworld where the stakes are high and nothing is as it seems, the girls are set for a life-changing experience that neither will ever forget.
Directed by
Cristian Mungiu
Written by
Cristian Mungiu
Starring
Anamaria Marinca (Otilia); Laura Vasiliu (Gabriela 'Gabita' Dragut); Vlad Ivanov (Viarel aka Domnu' Bebe); Alexandru Potocean (Adi Radu); Ion Sapdaru (Dr. Rusu); Teodor Corban (Unireal Hotel receptionist (as Teo Corban)); Tania Popa (Night receptionist); Cerasela Iosifescu (); Doru Ana (Benzanirul); Eugenia Bosânceanu (Domnu' Bebe's mother); Marioara Sterian (Adela Racoviceanu (as Maricara Sterian)). Please contact SFC to add other cast members and characters.
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Pro-abortion propoganda
Mark Banks (United Kingdom)
Opinion: Not Recommended
The first thing I have to say about this film is that I thought it was just boring - plain boring, with one of those annoying "I'm not here to judge things" open-ended finishes by the director. More importantly though I felt it was blatant propaganda for the legalisation of abortion and a promo-piece for early-term abortions. The focus throughout the film was on the illegality of what they were doing; the trouble that the two women and the abortionist could get into; the danger for them. The focus was not on the baby's life; on the life they were destroying from this innocent child of God. I’m glad the director painted a more-realistic picture of an abortionist than the unlikely protagonist of Mike Leigh’s Vera Drake, but that did little to off-set the balance for me. If further evidence were needed as to where this film's allegiances lie, the promo-trailer starts off with the caption "Living under Total Repression, Before the Fall of Communism". I make no apologies for not believing that a ban on abortions represents repression of any kind. If only people knew the true harm abortion and contraception cause to personal, family and societal life, there's little chance a ban on them would ever be put forward as repression; quite the opposite in fact. So much is said these days of dangerous backstreet abortions and yet so little is said of the millions of babies that have died through supposedly safe legal channels. This film does little to change that outlook, but instead re-inforces a tired old arguement for legalising abortion.
