4 Months, 3 Weeks + 2 Days

Sunday 7 April – 5 pm
World Cinema
(Romania 2007) 113 min. Anamaria Marinca, Laura Vasiliu, Vlad Ivanov. Dir: Cristian Mungie.This movie is a haunting and harrowing tale set in Ceaucescu’s Romania. centered on a pair of college dorm mates, Gabita and Otilia, who we encounter on the day Gabita, with Otilia’s help, seeks to terminate her unwanted pregnancy. This is a bleak and disturbing film tackling a very emotional subject. Cristian Mungiu has delivered a masterpiece, a film so powerful it will leave the viewer thinking long after watching it. The material is raw, filmed beautifully to capture the raw feelings and emotions of the characters, the ugly and drab feel of a communist country and the ever present authoritarian hand of the state. Some of the scenes are unnerving, especially the hotel scene when Gabita and Otilia are “negotiating” with the man who will perform the abortion. In any society, the choice to terminate an unwanted pregnancy is not one that is positive or cause for happiness. The reality of facing this reality in the society that Mungiu brings to life is even more dispiriting. There are no good choices for Gabita and Otilia and one cannot begin to imagine the mental wounds that they will be left with for the rest of their lives.
Original Version (Rumanian) with English subtitles.

The Virgin Spring

Wednesday 10 April – 7 pm
Max Von Sydow’s Birthday
(Sweden 1960) 89 min. Max von Sydow, Brigitta Valberg, Gunnel Lindblom. Dir: Ingmar Bergman. Made in 1960 and set in medieval Sweden, Ingmar Bergman’s The Virgin Spring is based on a folk ballad. It also examines a society in transition from Norse pantheism to Christianity. The film starkly contrasts Ingeri–a dark, feral, Odin-worshipping foster daughter to a Christian family headed by Max Von Sydow–and their own daughter, a pretty and blond but also vain and naïve girl named Karin, whom Ingeri resents. They travel out together Read the rest of this entry »