A Mobra Films Production

a film by Cristian Mungiu

Romania - 2007 - running time: 113 minutes

International Press

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Synopsis

Otilia and Găbiţa share the same room in a student

dormitory. They are colleagues at the University in this
small town in Romania, during the last years of
communism. Otilia rents a room in a cheap hotel. In the
afternoon, they are going to meet a certain Mr. Bebe.
Găbiţa is pregnant, abortion is illegal and neither of them
have passed through something like this before.

4 months, 3 weeks & 2 days belongs to a larger project

called: Tales from the Golden Age – a subjective history
of communism in Romania told through its urban legends.
The projectʼs aim is to talk about that period with no direct
reference to communism but only through different stories
focused on personal options in a time of misfortunes that
people had to live like normal times.

4 months, 3 weeks & 2 days is the first film of the series.

Cast and Crew

Otilia - Anamaria Marinca Written and Directed by Cristian Mungiu

Găbiţa - Laura Vasiliu
Domnuʼ Bebe - Vlad Ivanov Director of Photography: Oleg Mutu
Adi - Alex Potocean Production designer: Mihaela Poenaru
Doamna Radu - Luminiţa Gheorghiu Editor: Dana Bunescu
Dl. Radu - Adi Carauleanu Sound: Titi Fleancu, Dana Bunescu
Cristian Tarnoveţchi
Recepţionistă Unirea - Liliana Mocanu Mix: Cristinel Şirli
Recepţionista de Seară - Tania Popa Costume designer: Dana Istrate
Recepţionist Unirea - Teo Corban Make-up and Hair: Ioana Angelescu, Lidia Ivanov
Recepţionistă Tineretului - Cerasela Iosifescu
Benzinarul - Doru Ana UPM: Alina Ţapardel
Mama Domnului Bebe - Eugenia Bosânceanu Executive producer: Florentina Onea
Dl. Rusu - Ioan Sabdaru Assistant producer: Philippe Avril / Unlimited
Marie-Jeanne Rusu - Cristina Buburuz Associate producer: Dan Burlac
Adela Racoviceanu - Mărioara Sterian Produced by: Oleg Mutu, Cristian Mungiu
Dr. Racoviceanu - Emil Coşeru for Mobra Films
Doamna Aldea - Georgeta Păduraru Burdujan Co-produced by: Saga Film, Alex Teodorescu
Dr. Aldea - Geo Dobre
Dora - Mădălina Ghiţescu With the support of:
Mihaela - Cătălina Harabagiu The Romanian National Center for Cinematography
Carmen - Sânziana Tarţă The Hubert Bals Fund of the Rotterdam Film Festival
Daniela - Mihaela Alexandru
Ahmed - Hazim EʼLayan And the contribution of:
Soldat - Monica Alexandrescu Mindshare Media
Soldat - Simona Stoicescu BV McCann Erickson
Bărbatul din staţie - Alexandru Conovaru Romanian Television
Portarul - Ion Grosu The Anonimul Foundation
Chelnerul - Traian Tudorică State
Medicinistul - Cristian Ciuzan Post-production services and DI: Abis Studio
Miliţian - Iancu Daniel
Miliţian - Robert Emanuel
Marcu - Constantin Bojog
Medicinista - Cristina Iosif
Mireasa - Adina Cristescu
Bişniţarul - Călin Puia
Tatăl Găbiţei - Costică Babii
Notes from the director

The story: The screenplay starts from the kind of The casting: I had only one actor in mind when I was
personal experience that people usually donʼt share with writing: Vlad Ivanov - the actor who plays Mr. Bebe. I had
others. Something unexpected happened with the people worked with him on a commercial one year before and
who came in contact with my story: once they heard it, was amazed by his strength and attention to detail. During
they had a personal story of this kind to share. All of a the casting, I double-checked my opinion about him as
sudden, everybody had something to say about this topic. Mr. Bebe by seeing other actors, but this served only to
I was amazed to discover how common yet hidden such strengthen my conviction that I was right. During the shoot
stories are. Talking to people, I learned the most horrible he was capable of delivering up to 10 pages of dialogue
of stories. I didnʼt use them in the film – I just followed the without dropping a single word, with exactly the
story I knew best – but they helped me understood how intonation, tone of voice, pauses and gestures that we
widespread the phenomenon was. had agreed upon.
I considered working with Laura Vasiliu - who plays
The screenplay: I wrote the first draft in July 2006. It Găbiţa - for my first feature, Occident, but for somehow
was much longer than the final version – it had some 160 funny reasons this didnʼt happen. Later, we worked on
pages and described in more detail the morning of the commercials together and I realized she was capable of
girls in the student dorms. It also included the visit of generating a lot of emotion. I had doubts at the beginning
Găbiţaʼs father – the only scene that was shot and because she was not quite young enough for the role but
dropped in the editing. I decided to sacrifice a good she was so convincing that she soon dispelled them.
scene - with a lot of hints regarding parental influence A week before the shoot I was still missing my main
on the way the characters decide - in favor of narrative character and running out of solutions: it seemed I had
coherence. Meanwhile, Otilia had imposed herself with seen every Romanian actress between the ages of 18
authority as the main character. I kept re-writing during and 28 and still hadnʼt found my character. Then I decided
the shooting, especially dialogues, but not only. I always to bring Anamaria Marinca from London. After winning a
re-write scenes once I know the location and have read Bafta award for her first film, she had moved to England.
through the dialogue with the actors. I kept adding For our low budget, it was a bit eccentric to pay for a very
substance to the core of the film - the scenes with Mr. expensive plane ticket just for a casting session but I
Bebe - and gave free rein to the thriller rhythm of the decided it was worth trying. We met late at night, as soon
last part. as she arrived from the airport, and I was disappointed -
Anamaria as a person was not my character. Next day we
The historical context: In 1966, a law banning abortion read scenes together: the transformation was amazing.
was imposed in Romania. The effect was immediate: up My character was talking through Anamariaʼs mouth, as if
to the early seventies, there were several huge she was possessed. She was great – the whole film rests
generations of children, a few times more numerous than on her shoulders.
the generations before 1966. The average number of
children in a classroom increased from 28 to 36. The Acting: I insist that actors know the lines by heart in
number of classes in schools increased from 2 or 3 to 9 absolute detail. I give them the chance to make their
or 10. When I entered school, there were seven Cristians comments on the dialogue when we rehearse. I act for
in my class – there were not enough names to go around. them. If I canʼt speak a line convincingly, it means there
Women quickly started to resort to illegal abortions. By is something wrong with that line and I drop it. Once they
the end of communism, reliable sources say that more know the text, I start dropping letters from their
than 500,000 women had died as a result. In that context, pronunciation to make the dialogue sound as much as
abortion lost any moral connotation and was rather possible like negligent spoken language. Sound people
perceived as an act of rebellion and resistance against detest me – I encourage my actors to whisper if it helps
the regime. After 1989, one of the first measures taken in them deliver the lines more naturally than to act with a
the free country was to legalize abortion again. The strong voice that can be easily recorded. If I am
consequence was almost one million abortions in the first absolutely pleased about anything in my film, it is the
year – a number far greater than in any country in acting. A comment I received after the first informal
Europe. Even today, abortion is still used as a method of screening of the film was also the best compliment for me
contraception in Romania, with more than 300, 000 cases so far: somebody mentioned that if you listen to the
being reported annually. characters in the film from another room, they sound like
people talking in home videos.
The setting: I only shoot locations; I donʼt like sets. I also
like the background to tell its story. I like locations so
much that I like to show everything. Most of the shots in
the film show 180, 270, or even 360 degrees of the
location. Anyone who has ever been on a shoot can
appreciate what a mess this can lead to. Any location has
a base, a generator, light, a lot of cables, the directorʼs
monitor and so on. When you decide to make a circle with
the camera, a whole crew of tens of people has to run
behind the camera during the shot, and moreover, has to
do this in silence. Sometimes, itʼs comic to watch.
Since we decided to shoot mostly one shot per scene, we
had scenes where the camera followed the actor for more
than 100 meters, starting from a street and finally entering
an apartment. Itʼs terribly difficult but the effect is so
natural – it was worth doing it.

The props: I tried to make a film about my characters

and about my story and not about the period. I wanted the
period to be always just the context and not the subject of
the film. I tried to respect and re-create realities as much
as I could but not to push stereotypes and landmarks of
late communist times in front of the camera. Objects of
that period are all there in the film but in the foreground:
the bus that ran on bomb-like gas cylinders; Lăstun, the
local Romanian car that was often compared to an iron;
the trash bins; the book-lined walls. The habits from those
times are also there: the pack of Kent cigarettes was
much more important then the money you paid for it and
you couldnʼt solve anything without it.

Shooting a period film: The eighties are already ʻperiodʼ.

Towns have changed dramatically since than. There are
seven times more cars in Bucharest, the town is crowded
with brightly-coloured advertising and most of the
buildings have air conditioning, satellite dishes, metal
window frames and so on. In the late eighties there was
no light on the streets, just two hours of programming on
the sole TV channel, very little gasoline for cars, and a
very bleak and gray atmosphere overall. This explains the
grading of the film.

The filmʼs aesthetics: Before shooting, I discussed with

Oleg Mutu, my partner and cinematographer, what style
would best serve the story. We decided to keep things as
sober as possible and to drop as much as possible
everything that could be seen as staged or conventional.
We didnʼt use a tripod but neither did we use a steady-
cam. We didnʼt use dollies or cranes. We decided to shoot
one shot per scene and to allow the actors to use the
space behind the camera. We never panned or tilted to
see an actorʼs face – many lines come from off camera or
actors with their heads out of the frame. We made a
strategy of shooting people from behind. We dropped,
little by little, everything that could be considered too ʻniceʼ
or too staged, including the beautiful snow falling at the
end of the last shot. We tried to focus on capturing
emotion and truth.

- Cristian Mungiu
Cristian Mungiu
Writer / Director / Producer

Biography FILMS

Cristian Mungiu was born in 1968 in Iaşi, Romania. He 4 months, 3 weeks & 2 days
studied English literature at the University of Iaşi and Film (4 luni, 3 săptămâni şi 2 zile) - feature.
Directing at the University of Film in Bucharest. He Writer / Director / Producer.
worked as a teacher and a journalist for written press, Hubert Bals 2006 grant for project development.
radio and television until 1994. During his film studies, he Tales from The Golden Age
worked as an assistant director for foreign productions (Amintiri din Epoca de Aur) - series of fiction films.
shot in Romania. After his graduation, in 1998, he made Writer / Co-Director / Producer.
several shorts. His first feature, "Occident", was In production.
premiered in Director's Fortnight in Cannes in 2002 and
Turkey Girl
was later screened in over 50 festivals worldwide.
(Curcanii nu zboară) - short.
He co-founded Mobra Films in 2003.
Writer / Director / Producer
Included in the omnibus film Lost and Found
Premiered at Berlinale, 2005.
Occident - feature.
Writer / Director
Selected at Cannes 2002, Quainzaine des Realisateurs.
Supported by Hubert Bals
Over 10 international awards including FIPRESCI award
in Sofia Film Festival and Audience Award in Tessaloniky
Film Festival.

HBO Best Romanian Screenplay Award in 2000 with

Slum / Cartier.
RKO Pictures International Screenplay Competition
finalist with Slum.
ANAMARIA MARINCA LUMINIŢA GHEORGHIU
She graduated from the University of Fine Arts, Music FILMS
and Drama "George Enescu", Iaşi. A fost sau n-a fost? (12:08 East of Bucharest)
- Corneliu Porumboiu
FILMS (Camera DʼOr - Cannes Film Festival, 2006)
Youth Without Youth - Francis Ford Coppola
 (2007) Moartea domnului Lăzărescu
(The Death of Mister Lăzărescu) - Cristi Puiu
TV (Best Film, Un Certain Regard - Cannes Film Festival, 2005)
Sex Traffic - David Yates (2004)
Lost and Found - Co-Directed by Cristian Mungiu (2005)
Best Actress awards: Le Temps du loup (The Time of the Wolf)
BAFTA, Royal Television Society Awards, 2005 - Michael Haneke (2003)
45th Festival de Television de Monte Carlo, 2005
Marfa şi banii (Stuff and Dough) - Cristi Puiu (2001)
(Directorsʼ Fortnight - Cannes Film Festival, 2001)
Code inconnu - Michael Haneke (2000)
VLAD IVANOV Train de vie - Radu Mihăileanu (1999)
Prea târziu (Too Late) - Lucian Pintilie
 (1996)
He graduated from the Academy Of Theatre And Film,
Bucharest. Moromeţii - Stere Gulea (1988)

FILMS AWARDS
Le Père Goriot - Jean-Daniel Verhaeghe (2004) Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards -
Best Supporting Actress for Moartea domnului
Les Percutés - Gerard Cuq (2002)
Lăzărescu (The Death of Mister Lăzărescu) (2005)
Nature Morte - Patrick Malakian (2000)
The Embassy - Gustavo Marino

LAURA VASILIU
She graduated from The National University of Theatre
and Cinema Arts, Bucharest.

FILMS
Second Hand - Dan Piţa
Bless you, Prison - Nicolae Mărgineanu (2002)
Callas Forever - Franco Zeffirelli (2002)
OLEG MUTU
Director of Photography

Born in 1972 in Chişinău, he graduated from the

University of Theatre & Film, Bucharest, Romania,
Cinematography department.

Moartea Domnului Lăzărescu

(The Death of Mr. Lăzărescu) - Cristi Puiu
Best Film, Un Certain Regard - Cannes Film Festival, 2005
Cigarettes and Coffee - Cristi Puiu

Golden Bear, Best Short Film - Berlin Film Festival, 2004
Occident - Cristian Mungiu
Fipresci Award, Directorsʼ Fortnight - Cannes Film
Festival, 2002

DANA BUNESCU
Editor / Sound Designer

Born in Craiova in 1969, she graduated from the Academy

of Theatre and Film, Bucharest – Editing and sound section.

California Dreamin' - Cristi Nemescu

Un Certain Regard - Cannes Fim Festival, 2007
Moartea Domnului Lăzărescu
(The Death of Mr. Lăzărescu) - Cristi Puiu
Best Film, Un Certain Regard - Cannes Film Festival, 2005
Cigarettes and Coffee - Cristi Puiu

Golden Bear, Best Short Film - Berlin Film Festival, 2004