“Trust is vital” are the words Dr. Bebe emphasizes while speaking to Otilia, a young woman going above and beyond the call of duty to help her friend and college roommate obtain an illegal abortion in Communist Romania in the late 1980’s. 

Christian Mungiu, writer and director of the 2007 Golden Palm winner at Cannes, uses simple but sharp cinematography to dictate a story that delves deeper than the abortion question, reaching the core themes of honesty, trust and friendship that truly resonate.

The film chronicles Otilia (Anamaria Marinica) and the desperate lengths she goes to in a single day to ensure an abortion for her desperate, deluded and direly dependant friend Gabita (Laura Vasilu). Without hesitation or a helping hand, Otilia carries out every aspect of the operation from booking the hotel room for the procedure (after finding out that Gabita failed to do so), to meeting the doctor (which Gabita also failed to do), to the disposing of the fetus.

The film stumbles into a couple obvious discrepancies, such as when we learn that Gabita has not been honest, that she is not two months pregnant, not three months, but in fact four months, three weeks and two days, yet she does not have a bump or even a sign of a bump, but in fact has a perfectly flat stomach. Gabita also wears a golden cross around her a neck even though it is likely that carrying strong religious symbols would not be allowed, or at least not approved of in a Communist country. These points, however, are not hindrances to a film so ferociously honest in every way that matters.

Christian Mungiu lets the characters and the events take the reigns. He excludes any musical pieces from the film and depends on very long shots and occasional hand-held shots. Nothing more is needed, because he invites authenticity and directness into every frame. There is no commentary on abortion on a moral level. He simply gives it to us, all of it, regardless of whether or not we are prepared. Nothing is spared, from Dr. Bebe (Vlad Ivanov) putting on his plastic gloves to the insertion of the probe into Gabita to the bloody fetus lying on the bathroom floor.

Candor seeps in on a more universal level when questions of trust, or lack thereof, emerge during the long day. Dr.Bebe’s dangerous decision to terminate Gabita’s pregnancy wavers when he sees that Gabita has not been completely honest , nor has she honored the terms of their agreement. The consequences of the termination do not seem as apparent to her as they are to him. Blind-sighted by revelations, Otilia realizes her friend has not only built obstacles with her lies, but she has not thought anything through. When she wonders whether or not Gabita can go through with it, Gabita answers “We’ve already paid for the room.” But her misgivings extend to the insensitive doctor (who is temperamental at first and becomes more pleasant as the abortion progresses, at the end casually pointing out that the fetus should be thrown down a trash dispenser and not in the toilet, which would get clogged), and to her well-to-do boyfriend, who she feels looks down on her humble background and may not take their relationship seriously enough.

Stark, hard-bitten, unembellished. All can be used to describe the direction, plot, dialogue, characters and performances of this film. It is comparable to a band whose music is so good, they don’t need flashing lights, visual effects or costumes to assist them on stage. This story is not simple, just simply (and overwhelmingly) strong.

by Sanela Djokovic