Yesterday night the Walker screened Cristian Mungiu’s 4 Months, 3 Weeks , 2 Days a film portraying the harrowing story of a young woman living in Romania in 1987 and her story of undergoing and illegal abortion. Based on an actual story of a friend of Mungiu’s the film is an in depth look at actual life under the Communist rule. “ In 1966, a law than banned abortion was imposed in Romania. The effect was immediate: up to 1970 there were four huge generations of children, a few times more numerous that the generations before 1966. The number of children in a classroom increased from 28 to 36… By the end of communism sources say that more than 500,000 women had died because of …” trying to receive illegal abortions.

4 Months, 3 Weeks , 2 Days is apart of the New Wave movement in Romania. The stylistic elements that are defining this movement are “ long takes , fixed camera positions, a taste for plain lighting and everyday décor.” Many of the stories have a tendency to follow everyday ordinary lives. If you are bummed you were unable to attend the film you still have time to go and see other Romanian new wave director Cristian Nemescu’s film California Dreamin’(Endless) on Febuary 8th at 7:30 ( In “ one of the best films about how America is perceived abroad ever made”–Washington Post and winner of Un Certain Regard at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival, a Romanian bureaucrat delays an American NATO train on its way to Kosovo as a way to avenge the arrogance and neglect he feels the United States displayed toward Romanians after World War II) or Free Thursday, Febuary 7th at 7:30 you can see an early short by him called Marilena from P7 which follows a juvenile who befriends a prostitute. Make sure if you go to the free film on Thursday you reserve your tickets.