After the success of Canadian film 'Juno' last year, this exceptional and confronting Romanian film hit international cinemas at a pitch-perfect time. Both films deal with the issue of teenage pregnancy, though whilst 'Juno' is set in an advantaged, middle-class family environment, '4 Months, 3 Weeks And 3 Days' finds it's protagonists in communist Romania, with not nearly as many choices.
The contrasts further reveal themselves as Juno, with her family in tow, patiently shops around for the perfect couple to adopt her baby... a world away from Gabita, the pregnant lead of '4 Months', and her friend Otilia, whom, alone, are desperately trying to arrange an illegal, and very dangerous, abortion.
I think we know where I'm going with this: 'Juno' is a cute comedy; '4 Months' is a raw tragedy.
The catch-phrase slogan of '4 Months' reads, 'How far would you go for a friend?', but I feel the subtext in this movie reflect a wider struggle, a struggle that asks the question; 'How far must a woman go because of a man?' How marginalised is the destiny of a woman under a patriarchal legal system?
Before seeing this film, I had felt that the most powerful movie I had seen in recent years was undoubtedly 'Hunger' (2008), which covers the IRA hunger strikes in Belfast's Maze Prison during the early 80's. After viewing '4 Months, 3 Weeks And 2 Days' though, it is clear to me that for all it's gritty courage and bloody persecution, what gave 'Hunger' a weighted sense of poignancy was, in fact, just that: pathetic and pointless testosterone-fueled madness; flawed males rebelling against a flawed male system. '4 Months, 3 Weeks And 2 Days' strips itself of all that ego, and what remains is an uphill battle against patriarchal oppression, defiantly pushed along with the love, self-determination, and quiet intelligence inherent in femininity.
'4 Months, 3 Weeks And 2 Days' was released in Australia in 2007, and is now available to rent on DVD.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I saw Hunger on Friday and 4 Months was my favourite film of 2007. I agree that both films are powerful, but don't agree with your interpretation of the gender politics.
We (and they) don't live in flawed males systems. We live in flawed systems, of which women play as strong a part. If not in government and business, then surely socially. The whole concept of power being only that which is wielded by governments, business and the like, is itself a patriarchal attitude, that denies the immense social and personal power that an individual possesses. It also ignores that men are as much a victim of such systems as women (and often more so, as in the case of Hunger).
Hey mate,
Yes I guess I made a fairly sweeping generalisation, and possibly an offensive one at that. But that's just what I took from the film, and whilst I agree that sociology plays a significant role in our system, I can't help but be reminded of my mother, whom worked in a young women's refuge for years, and always expressed frustration at the lack of support from.. our government. In this sense, I still see the power being controlled by a male-perspective, conservative system.
This example reminds me of another film which came to mind whilst watching '4 Months', and that is Mike Leigh's 'Vera Drake' (2004) - which focuses on a truly lovely old woman who 'helps out' young women with unwanted pregnancies because an unsympathetic government system offered no real assistance. In a heartbreaking closing stanza, the old woman is rather clinically 'processed' by the legal system.
Anyway mate, I see what you are saying, and I will consider and discuss it with a few more people in order to get a more rounded perspective. I really appreciate you both reading, and leaving feedback mate, I'm sure you know how valuable it is!
Post a Comment