http://news.brisbanetimes.com.au/top-cannes-award-for-harrowing-romanian-abo rtion-film/20072928-f5c.html
Top Cannes award for harrowing Romanian abortion film May 28, 2007 - 4:27AM A devastating Romanian film on back-alley abortion and daily despair in the communist era Sunday won the Cannes film festival's top award, the Palme d'Or. "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days" by director Cristian Mungiu was handed the coveted prize at a glittering red-carpet ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of the world's paramount filmfest. "It looks a little bit to me like (a) fairytale," a softly spoken Mungui said, adding that the triumph showed "you don't necessarily need big budgets and big stars to make stories." The film, titled after the age of the aborted foetus in the movie, stunned hardened festival veterans and was a favourite for the prize among the 22 films in the competition. Film industry bible Variety called the film a revelation. "Pitch perfect and brilliantly acted, '4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days' is a stunning achievement, helmed with a purity and honesty that captures not just the illegal abortion story at its core but the constant, unremarked negotiations necessary for survival in the final days of the Soviet bloc," reviewer Jay Weissberg wrote. A low-budget movie produced with less than 600,000 euros (808,000 US dollars), it is 39-year-old Mungiu's second feature and also highlights the role of friendship in daily survival in communist Nicolae Ceaucescu's Romania. In the movie Gabita (Laura Vasiliu), a timid student in a small town, is desperate to terminate her mid-term pregnancy at a time when abortion is illegal but almost anything could be bought on the black market. Mungiu offers a shocking image of the aborted foetus, but it is the abortionist's graphic description of the process and his chilling exploitation of the women's dilemma that make for particularly excruciating viewing. Mungiu said he aimed to capture the bleak environs of late 1980s Romania. "Because of the pressure of the regime, women and families were so much concerned about not being caught for making an illegal abortion that they didn't give one minute of thought about the moral issue," he told reporters. "It was either you or them getting you for what you did." He put the foetus on screen to serve as a reminder to audiences. "It makes a point -- people should be aware of the consequences of their decisions," he said. C 2007 <http://news.brisbanetimes.com.au/action/displayCopyright?source=AFP> AFP ---------------------------- Vali "Noble blood is an accident of fortune; noble actions are the chief mark of greatness." (Carlo Goldoni) "When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace." (Jimi Hendrix)
