Romanian director hopes his film releases without cuts in India

Panaji, Nov 25 (UNI) Noted Romanian filmamker Cristian Mungiu wants his ''Four Months, Three Weeks and Two days'', winner of Palm D'Or at the Cannes film festival, to be released without any cuts in India.

''I want my film to be shown as it is. I am not concerned about commercial aspect. When a distributor asked me to cut some of the scenes for US release, I refused because I value my work more than anything else,'' said Cristian addressing a press conference along with lead actress of the film Anmaria Marinca at the International Film Festrival of India(IFFI) here.

'Four Months, Three Weeks and Two days', which was the opening film at IFFI, is slated for release in India in December. Cristian said he was very happy to know that his work can be seen by the people here, but said he wished and hoped that they were able to see it without any censor.

The film is about two young university students, one of them wanting to have an illegal abortion, and the other trying to help her. The film is set in 1987, the last days the Ceausescu regime, during which abortion was banned in Romania, and illegal termination of pregnancy took the life of lakhs of women.

Otilia and Gabita share the same room in a student dormitory.

When Gabita gets pregnant, the two girls arrange a meeting with Mr Bebe (Vlad Ivanov) in a cheap hotel, where he is to perform an illegal abortion. Out of the tension and the trauma of their situation in the society in the last days of communism, the director has created a powerful and moving film.

The film is part of a larger project called 'Tales from the Golden Age' which he describes as subjective history of communism in Romania told through its urban legends.

''It talks about the period with no direct reference to Communism but only through different stories focussed on personal options in a time of misfortunes that people had to live like normal lives,'' the director said.

''I have tried to make a film about his characters and about his story and not about the period. I just want to tell a simple story.

I do not think about its theme. I do not set down to write its message. All these are questions of interpretation, better to left to viewers,'' said Cristian answering a question.

Replying to a question, Anmaria said she did not think actors were just an instrument in the hands of the directors. ''When we play a role, we interact with other actors and so many other things of life along with of course the director. You seem to see a symbol in everything that happens. You delve deep into the character you are playing. In fact I tried to escpae myself while playing the role in this film.'' Cristian was born in 1968 in Lasi, Romania. He studied English literature and film direction before working as a teacher and a journlist. After his graduation, he made several short films and his first feature film was 'Occident' which was premierd in Director's Fortnight in Cannes in 2002 and was later screened in over 50 festivals.

Later, he made 'Turkey Girl' and then 'Tales from the Golden Age'.

After making its worldwide debut at Cannes, the film made its Romanian debut on June 1, at the Transilvania International Film Festival.

UNI