In Cristian Mungiu’s 2007 film, "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days," he tells the nerve-piercing story of two Romanian college girls, Otilia and Gabita, as the former tries to help the latter obtain an illegal abortion in 1987. The illegality of abortions was one factor of Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu’s reign. Even after he was taken out of office, authoritarianism remained. In A History of Narrative Cinema, David A. Cook says, “The violent overthrow of the Ceausescu dictatorship in December 1989 placed the country in the hands of the National Salvation Front (FSN), whose leader, Ion Iliescu, was elected president in 1990. Iliescu…left the authoritarian communist infrastructure…partially intact,” (683). Through an endlessly creative use of Oleg Mutu’s long-take cinematography that helps to define the girls’ entrapment, Mungiu captures a day in the lives of the two girls as it unfolds in real time, with the faith and loyalty between Otilia and Gabita challenged in one of the toughest of situations.
Right from the long-take opening scene, the viewer gets an idea of the confinement that the girls suffer through. The first thing that is shown is a straight-on shot of a rectangular fish bowl sitting on a table with two fish inside. This is an early symbol for the two girls’ confinement. According to an article by Richard Porton of Cineaste magazine, titled “Not Just and Abortion Film: An Interview with Cristian Mungiu,” the author says, “At the film’s outset, a shot of Gabita and Otilia’s dormitory room reveals a fishbowl with only a paltry amount of water – an image that beautifully encapsulates the young women’s sense of being inexorably trapped,” (35). The ticking of an alarm clock can also be heard as it stands near the fish tank, the sound of the clock reminding the viewer of the time-sensitive matter at hand. Then, the camera pulls back to reveal Gabita sitting on her bed and smoking a cigarette with a worried expression on her face. Then, it pulls back some more to reveal the whole interior of the dorm room. Throughout this long take, the fish tank remains in the frame. As the viewer is now able to view the whole room, he can see that its rectangular dimensions reflect that of the fish tank, further linking the symbolic fish with Otilia and Gabita. In this scene, Otilia and Gabita are in the frame together almost the entire time, emphasizing their shared entrapment.
In this scene, the viewer can also tell that Otilia is resting briefly on her bed, the only time she actually gets to relax during the movie. However, she is mostly off screen, and the viewer only sees her foot. But, she then has to get up and help Gabita pack. This helps in understanding Otilia’s character because this way, the first time the viewer actually sees her is not when she’s resting, but helping Gabita, which is what she commits to for the duration of the movie. The viewer can tell that Gabita exhibits some selfish tendencies. In an exchange of dialogue, it is evident that she mooches off of Otilia:
Otilia: “Did you get the toothpaste?”
Gabita: “Yes. I took your cotton wool, too. You’ll get some more, OK? Do you have any soap?”
Otilia: “Check the drawer.”
Gabita: “None left.”
Otilia: “I was just about to go.”
Gabita: “Get Amo or Lux, definitely not Palmolive, it gives me dandruff. Can you get my hairdryer from Petronella?
Then, this scene cuts to another long take as Otilia walks down the dorm hallway to find Petronella. The way the camera follows her down the narrow hallway and the bathroom show early signs of the constant running around that Otilia does for Gabita throughout the film. The absence of most lighting in the hallway helps to highlight the bleakness and gloom of the atmosphere. There are several little things that happen as Otilia walks back to her room. She’s invited to a film screening, but has to decline the invitation because of her commitment to Gabita. She stops at a girl’s door to pet her kittens, is offered one, but says that she can’t have one because Gabita is allergic. Lastly, a man at a distance calls down to Otilia to have her tell Gabita that her father is outside. All of this paints Otilia as somewhat of a caretaker to Gabita, and show that she is without a social life at the moment because of what’s going on with the planned abortion. Otilia returns to her room, but has to deliver something to another girl’s room. As she enters the room, there are four other girls that Otilia interacts with. This is another sign of a social life that Otilia has to postpone for the time being because of Gabita. As she returns to the room, the viewer gets a better sampling of the worrying side of Gabita as she’s complaining about a toothache, stomachache and fever. She also asks Otilia if she can handle the money when the time comes, to which Otilia complies.
A deeper side to the girls’ relationship becomes unraveled in the scene where the two must make a hasty and tough decision when they don’t have enough money to pay Mr. Bebe for the abortion. In this scene, Otilia and Gabita agree to have sex with him in order to reciprocate for the lack of money. They are doing this so Mr. Bebe will agree to give Gabita the probe. This is a dark parallel because Gabita will be probed in two cases: for the abortion, and probed in the sense of having sex with Mr. Bebe. Otilia decides to go first, and as she and Mr. Bebe sit down to get undressed, the viewer only sees the back of Otilia. Her strength is seen in this sequence. She doesn’t cry or breakdown because she knows she’s doing this to help her friend. Mr. Bebe then gives Gabita a stern look that tells her to wait outside. By having Gabita wait out in the hall, this is what she does often throughout the film, which is wait around while her friend does all of the dirty work for her. The common motif of the cigarette comes in again as she asks a man for one. She uses this to calm herself, all the while Otilia is getting wrapped up in more than she expected.
Gabita then goes back into the room to wait some more in the bathroom as Otilia finishes. She turns on the sink so she won’t have to hear what’s happening outside. Otilia then enters the bathroom with a blank expression on her face as she nonchalantly walks to the bathtub to clean herself. Gabita then leaves the bathroom to have sex with Mr. Bebe, and doesn’t even ask Otilia if she’s okay after what happened to her. This is followed by another shot of Otilia with the camera positioned in back of her as she sits in the bathtub to wash herself. The camera then cuts to the right side of her face, and she’s still wearing a blank expression, not showing any sign of emotional trauma. Following this, there is a closer shot of the back of her head, again emphasizing how she closes herself off from her emotions in order to stay strong, and thereby closing the audience off from her face. This then cuts to a long take with Otilia washing her face at the sink that parallels when Gabita had the water turned on so that she didn’t have to hear what was going on with Otilia and Mr. Bebe. Otilia is at the mirror, and the long take is positioned in the back of her so the viewer sees her in the mirror throughout the take. This time, it’s Gabita who walks in. The mirror serves a purpose in this scene because the viewer sees a glimmer of expression in Otilia that subtly displays her opinions, expressions that look like as they are silently addressing the seriousness of what both of them have gotten themselves into. Contrary to Otilia, Gabita walks into the bathroom crying when she’s done with Mr. Bebe, and this helps to paint Otilia as the stronger and more resilient of the two because she didn’t cry. And, Gabita is at fault for getting them into that situation, so to have Otilia stay stronger throughout, even though this whole thing isn’t her fault, shows an immense strength in her character. After Gabita goes into the bathtub to wash herself, Otilia leaves, only to come back and put her jeans on. Unlike Gabita, Otilia stays with her in the bathroom, occasionally glancing at Gabita through the mirror. Before she leaves, Otilia looks at Gabita a few more times, displaying expressions of concern for her friend. This presents Otilia as being as oppressed as Gabita. While Gabita is oppressed in her want for an abortion, Otilia is oppressed in her opinions of what’s going on. She doesn’t say anything to discourage Gabita from going through with it; she is simply there to help her, only briefly presenting her innermost thoughts with her facial expressions in several moments throughout the film.
The final fifteen minutes of the film further define the friendship between the two girls and offers some clues, especially at the end, of what it might really mean. As Otilia arrives back at the hotel after visiting her boyfriend’s family, she goes to the reception desk to call Gabita to ask her to bring down her ID. She doesn’t pick up, and Otilia has to go upstairs herself. However, while she’s at the desk, the viewer sees one of the hotel employees smoking a cigarette. Cigarettes keep appearing throughout the film. In earlier scenes, Otilia gives her cigarette to her boyfriend and is about to smoke in Mr. Bebe’s car, but he begins to talk with her and she becomes distracted with listening to him. A cigarette is meant to relax a person, and Otilia not being able to have fits her character because she is unable to rest the whole day because of her having to take care of Gabita.
As Otilia enters the hotel room, the viewer sees Gabita asleep in the bed, something that Otilia hasn’t had the luxury of doing while watching over Gabita. Right after Otilia asks Gabita why she hasn’t been answering the phone, Gabita simply says, “I got rid of it. It’s in the bathroom.” She says this with somewhat of a tone that sounds as if she’s ordering Otilia around, and doesn’t even give her a word of thanks. As Otilia walks to the bathroom and turns the light on, she lingers just outside the door and looks down at the fetus. The camera stays on her, putting the audience on an uncomfortable edge as it wonders whether or not it will see the disturbing effects of the abortion. The camera then cuts to a medium shot of Otilia kneeling in the bathroom doorway as she continues to look at the fetus as the camera, again, lingers on her as the audience becomes increasingly nervous of what it might see. In this long take, Otilia doesn’t even get a chance to collect her thoughts of what she’s looking at because the phone starts ringing, and Gabita expects her to answer it. As she gets up to answer the phone, the camera descends to look at the fetus. The audience has now taken Otilia’s place and is looking at the fetus. Otilia then returns to the bathroom doorway with Gabita, the two of them positioned within the frame of the doorway within the frame of the screen, further displaying their confinement in society. Otilia puts the fetus in a plastic bag, and instead of Gabita acting grateful for the help she has received, she just asks if Otilia is going to bury it, and Otilia says she won’t.
Filmed in long takes, Otilia walks through town trying to find a place a good distance away to get rid of the fetus. For the first time in the movie, the viewer sees Otilia do something that feels right to her, not doing what Gabita wants. Earlier, they were asked by Mr. Bebe to not bury the fetus where dogs can dig it up. So, instead of burying it like Gabita asks, Otilia finally does what she thinks is best, and dumps it down a garbage shoot like Mr. Bebe advised. After she is rid of it, the camera lingers on her for a few seconds so the viewer can share in Otilia’s relief that the ordeal is finally over.
The last scene, filmed in a long take, has Otilia finding Gabita in the hotel restaurant, sitting at a table and smoking a cigarette, while also wearing the same sweater as in the opening scene. This creates a parallel between the two scenes because of the outfit and the fact that she was sitting down and smoking a cigarette in the film’s beginning as well. This could symbolize how Gabita hasn’t changed during the movie, and is still a selfish person. Even in the film’s end, Otilia still can’t get what she wants, no matter how small the need. She asks the waiter for another bottle of mineral water, but only gets a glass and a menu, the latter of which Gabita takes and looks through it. Gabita doesn’t even express a word of thanks, and only asks Otilia if she buried the fetus. The last minute of the film, there isn’t any dialogue. There is only Otilia looking at Gabita, and Gabita is only looking at Otilia’s menu, not even acknowledging her or making eye contact. Then, before the screen cuts to black, Otilia looks at the camera. Otilia can’t extract any sympathy from Gabita from what she has experienced by helping her. So, in a brief instant before the film ends, before the credits separate Otilia from the viewer, she looks at the audience in the hopes that it will express some understanding of what she has gone through. It’s an expression that asks, “Will our friendship last, or was Gabita just taking advantage of me?” It also creates some questions for the audience: How long have they been friends? Is their friendship even that deep? Are they really friends at all, or just simply roommates that fate has brought together under these unforeseen circumstances?
In "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days," Cristian Mungiu doesn’t just focus on the issue of abortion, but also calls into question the relationship between the two main characters. In the interview between Porton and Mungiu, the director says, “But people who actually see the film never come out with the impression that they’ve seen a film about abortion. I am glad that, despite all of the expectations people have about the film before actually seeing it, it’s a different experience when they actually see it,” (39). The viewer is meant to feel for Gabita because she’s the one who has to have the abortion. But in the end, the viewer ends up feeling more for Otilia because of how underappreciated she is by her friend. In the end, the viewer is the one who has to feel for Otilia because she isn’t getting the emotional reciprocation from Gabita.
Works Cited
Cook, David A. A History of Narrative Film. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2004.
Porton, Richard. “Not Just an Abortion Film: An Interview with Cristian Mungiu.” Cineaste. Spring 2008: 35-39.
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