Cannes, France- A shockingly beautiful Romanian film by director Cristian Mungiu, illustrating the horrors of an abortion during the last days of communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu's regime, was screened Thursday at the Cannes Film Festival. The film, 4 Luni, 3 Saptamini, si 2 Zile (4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days) is competing for the festival's coveted Palme d'Or and marked Romania's return to the world's leading film festival after an absence of 12 years.
Speaking to reporters, Mungiu said abortion had become so widespread across Romania in the early 1990s, he wanted to prompt women to think about the moral issues of a termination rather than about "getting caught" as under communism.
"People have a tendency of avoiding and thinking about what they don't like. People have to think of their consequences," he said.
The film marks Mungiu's emergence on the international cinema stage and tells a story of human drama typical in the final years running up to ouster of the Ceausescu regime in a bloody revolution in 1989.
Two students, Otila and a pregnant Gabita (played by Laura Vasiliu) share a residence hall in Bucharest.
They arrange to meet a sinister Mr Bebe in a cheap hotel where he is set to perform Gabita's illegal abortion not for money but for payment in kind.
The terror of the dictatorship reached even the most intimate spheres of life with Ceausescu having banned not only abortions but all kinds of contraceptives so as to increase the number of his subjects and those dedicated to the communist cause.
Romania's many unwanted children, born after Ceausescu's birth decree in the 1960s, were ironically nicknamed "little decrees."
"I too am a little decree," said Mungiu who was born in the same year in the north-eastern Romanian city of Iasi. The decree resulted in a small population boom.
In his new movie Mungiu said he intentionally used long takes for which the actors had to learn their lines exactly. Lots of cuts would have disturbed the emotional process, he explained.
Vasiliu said: "I was really terrified. It was really very difficult (to emerge from the character). I would not like to have that experience outside the film. Cristian gave me confidence that made up for the horrors of the subject."
