On the heels of Cristi Puiu's brilliant THE DEATH OF MR. LAZARESCU comes another outstanding picture, 4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS AND 2 DAYS, which firmly establishes Romania as a major force in early 21st-century world cinema. Winner of the Palme d'Or at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival, Cristian Mungiu's excruciatingly intense drama is set in Bucharest in the mid-1980s, as Nicolae Ceaucescu and his evil dictatorship continue to reign. In a country where abortion is outlawed, a young college student, Gabita (Laura Vasiliu), finds herself in big trouble. Unsure what to do, she turns to her roommate, Otilia (Anamaria Marinca), for help. On the day on which the film takes place, the pair connects with a black market doctor, Bebe (Vlad Ivanov), in order to take care of Gabita's pregnancy--but, of course, it isn't that simple. The resulting 24 hours reveals a harrowing descent into a world in which the possibility of tragedy lurks around every corner.

Mungiu's decision to film every scene in a hyper-documentary style, with long, unbroken takes (by co-producer Oleg Mutu), ratchets up the tension to nearly unbearable proportions. Adding even greater drama is his decision to focus on the friend, not the victim. Marinca's face, filmed in unflinching close-ups, expresses the impossibly complex flood of emotions that nag her throughout the day. The film's true revelation, however, is Ivanov, whose portrayal of the shady doctor is an absolute tour-de-force. 4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS AND 2 DAYS is filmmaking at its most masterly.