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Today's Stories March 22 / 23, 2008 Ralph Nader Bush Blisteres the Truth on Iraq March 21, 2008 Marleen Martin Land Behind Bars: the Hidden Casualties of America's "War on Crime" Peter Montague Run Your Car on Coal? Maybe Not Saul Landau Monroe's Deadly Doctrine Anis Hamadeh Merkel in the Knesset Jacob Hornberger McCain's Al Qaeda Scare: Slip or Tactic? Khalil Nakhleh Al Nakba of 1948: How Long Will It Persist? Adam Isacson Colombia, Paramilitary Threats and Assassinations Kenneth Couesbouc Money for Nothing Madis Senner Will the Feds Underwrite the Stock Market? Monica Benderman The Costs of Freedom: What Are You Willing to Pay? Website of the Day Stop Foreclosures and Evictions March 20, 2008 Damien Millet / Eric Toussaint The Triple Failing of the Big Private Banks Mike Whitney Winding Up Bear John Ross What Do We Owe Iraq? Dave Lindorff Paying the Piper: the Bodies and Bills are Piling Up Wajahat Ali Pakistan on Fire Jill Nagle Memo to Sex Workers: Stop Financing Shock Journalism Manuel Garcia, Jr. Obama and the Psychic Auto-Shrink-Wrapping Called Race in America Dan La Botz Obama's Race Speech Robert Weissman Alternative Power: Shutting Down the API Stella Dallas / Jennifer Matsui Apostasy Now! Mamet, Enter Stage Right Website of the Day The Angry Monk   March 19, 2008 Patrick Cockburn A War of Lies Robert Fisk The Little Men and the Inferno Jeff Taylor Five Years of War in Iraq Ed Ruggero From Pinkville to Iraq: the Dark Anniversary of My Lai Ron Jacobs Who'll Stop the Rain? Christopher Fons Obama Takes the Race Bait Sherwood Ross In Defense of Rev. Wright Cynthia McKinney An Urgent Crisis: Confronting America's Racial Disparities Joshua Frank The Kool-Aid That Kills Robert Weissman Monsanto's Genetic Food Gamble Walter Brasch It's a Welfare State--If You're Rich Yifat Susskind Iraqi Women Resist the Occupation Andrew Wimmer War Demands Its Due Website of the Day Glimpses of Nature   March 18, 2008 David Price The Military "Leveraging" of Cultural Knowledge Paul Craig Roberts The Collapse of American Power Tim Wise Of National Lies and Racial America: Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama and the Unacceptability of Truth Patrick Cockburn One of the Most Disastrous Wars Ever Fought Conn Hallinan Afghanistan, a River Running Backward James T. Phillips Monsters: Past, Present and Wannabe Uri Avnery The Killing in Bethlehem David Macaray Could Wal-Mart Revive the Labor Movement? Marjorie Cohn Beware an Attack on Iran Peter Zinn Obama in New Orleans Dan La Botz The Economic Crisis, Labor and the Left Monica Benderman Where are We Going?   March 17, 2008 Pam Martens The Fed's Wall Street Dilemma Sasan Fayazmanesh The US, Iran and the Policy of Dual Containment Nelson P. Valdés The Imperial Branding of Simon Bolivar and the Cuban Revolution Peter Morici The Corrosive Consequences of the Trade Deficit Wajahat Ali Disrobing the Nine: a Conversation with Jeffrey Toobin on the Supreme Court Since 9/11 Ronnie Cummins Beyond Progressive Malpractice: Taking Down Big Pharma Shaun Harkin Saint Patrick's Day in Fortress America Ali Khan No Pardon for Musharraf Robert Jensen Beyond Peace P. Sainath Oh, What a Lovely Waiver! Greg Moses Jeremiah was a Bullhorn Dr. Susan Block Advice for Eliot Spitzer Website of the Day No Cowboys   March 15 / 16, 2008 Patrick Cockburn How to Destroy a Country in Five Years Mike Whitney Bearly Alive: Investment Giant Rushed to ICU by Panicky Fed Chief Ralph Nader Of Laws and Men Robert Pollin It's Still the Economy, Stupid Diane Christian The Poetics of Perversity: From Boccaccio to Spitzer Wajahat Ali Faking the Hood: a Conversation with Ishmael Reed Tom Wright / Therese Saliba Rachel Corrie's Case for Justice Alan Farago Back to Florida: Where Bushtime Began Greg Moses Raiding the Family Room in Texas Michael Hudson A Grand Global Bargain? Martha Rosenberg Why Hillary's Favorite Chicken Company is Eying China John Goekler Fourth Generation Warfare in a Fifth Generation Conflict Uzma Aslam Khan A Letter to Barack Obama: Where's the Change, Barack? Oren Ben-Dor The Silencing of Gilad Atzmon David Underhill Mammon, Morals and the Mobile Tanker Deal Fred Gardner The Education of Eliot Spitzer David Michael Green Why Spitzer Should Have Resigned (and Why He Shouldn't Have) Rev. William E. Alberts Jesus, Entombed in Heaven Gail Dines It's All About the John: Prostitution and Male Power David Yearsley Conducting, Anarchy and the Problem of When to Begin Chris Clarke Walking with Zeke: the Luckiest of Dogs Poets' Basement Anderson, Lodge & Subiet Website of the Day Deviant Art   March 14, 2008 Paul Craig Roberts Watching the Dollar Die Don Santina Vichy Democrats: Pelosi and the Politics of Collaboration Patrick Cockburn Iraqi Mother Vows Revenge on US: How She Lost Her Husband and Her Sons Tim Rinne StratCom Rules! The Next War Will Start in Nebraska Robert Fantina In Torture We Trust Saul Landau Letter to the Presidents-in-Waitings David Macaray Common Myths About Labor Unions Franklin Lamb Is the Bush Administration Switching Horses in Lebanon Michael Neumann The One State Illusion: Reply to My Critics March 13, 2008 Paul Craig Roberts Republicans and "Free Market" Zealots Bring Disaster to America Mike Whitney Meltdown Looms Larger As Credit Markets Freeze Assaf Kfoury "One-State or Two State?"- Sterile Debate on False Alternatives Andy Worthington Afghan Hero Who Died in Guantánamo: The Background to the Story Adam Federman From Autopia to Autogeddon: Cars Reach the End of the Road March 12, 2008 Dave Lindorff Bringing Down Spitzer: It's the Big Brother Who Should Bother US R.F. Blader The Spitzer Backlash Yonatan Mendel How to be an Israeli Journalist. Never Write "Murder" or "Palestine" Jonathan Cook One State or Two? Neither. The Issue is Zionism Bill and Kathy Christison Fallon and Gates -- At Least One Cheer James J. Brittain Was the U.S. Involved in Killing the FARC-EP Leaders Ron Jacobs "All the Money You Make Will Never Buy Back Your Soul" March 11, 2008 Paul Craig Roberts How to End the Subprime Crisis Ed O'Loughlin How Israeli Troops Invade Homes in Gaza, Brutalize, Smash and Steal Ramzy Baroud 'Unwavering Commitment' to Inequality Kathy Christison One State or Two? The Debate Over Israel and Palestine China Hand PRC Plays it Cool, as U.S. Tries to Amp Up Pressure on Iran John Joslin Thank You, Nafta! Welcome to Weirton, Home of the Discount Cigarette Mike Averko Serb Politics, Kosovo and the Moscow-Washington Divide Ben Rosenfeld Gavin Newsom's Kneejerk Plan Thierry Paquot High Rise, Low Spirits:The Curse of the Tower Block March 10, 2008 Uri Avnery "Kill A Hundred Turks and Rest": The Five-Day War in Gaza Col. Dan Smith Scoring the "Surge" and What Lies Beyond R.F. Blader Why "Lock Them Up and Throw Away the Key" is Losing its Sheen Michael Neumann The One-State Illusion: More is Less Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman Did the Republicans Give Hillary Her Victory in Ohio? James J. Brittain Anti-Uribe Protests in Colombia and the World Missy Comley Beattie The Passion of John McCain March 8-9, 2008 Weekend Edition JoAnn Wypijewski The Only Way to Fight the Clintons Mike Whitney Sorting Through the Rubble in Post Bubble America Peter Morici Fed and Treasury Fiddle as Economy Plummets Ralph Nader The Silent Violence of Gaza's Suffering that Candidates Ignore Jonathan Cook The Meaning of Gaza's Shoah Steve Niva Behind the Israeli Escalation in Gaza Bill and Kathy Christison Crisis over Teheran's Alleged Nuclear Plans Nearing Climax Hervé Do Alto and Franck Poupeau Bolivia: Morales is Checked Eric Walberg To Leave and Stay at the Same Time: Putin to Medvedev to…? Scott Johnson City of A Thousand Foreclosures Mark Scaramella James Brown's Gate Bill Clinton President Clinton's Remarks on Naming William M. Daley as NAFTA Task Force Chairman Poet's Basement St. Thomasino, Engel, Davies and Willson Website of the Weekend Hillary Blackens Barack March 7, 2008 Patrick Cockburn Why Iraq Could Blow-Up in John McCain's Face Robin Blackburn Question for Barrack Obama: Why Afghanistan is the 'Right War'? Saul Landau The Stupid Economy Binoy Kampmark When Competition is Good: McCain and the Muddled Democrats Chris Floyd Crushing the Ants: Admiral Fallon and His Empire Andy Worthington Spanish Drop "Inhuman" Extradition Request for Guantánamo Britons Will Potter Before the Smoke Even Clears in Seattle: Bringing Out the T Word March 6, 2008   March 6, 2008 Vincent Navarro The Next Failure of Health Reform Forrest Hylton High Stakes in the Andes: Colombia's Cornered President Peter Morici Why the Dollar is So Cheap George Ciccariello-Maher Counter-Attack of the Bureaucrats John Ross Taxi! Taxi! The Dark Side of the Oscars Jacob Hornberger No Standing to Lecture on Justice Paul Watson Illegal Japanese Whaling by the Numbers Dan Bacher Off the Deep End Website of the Day A Katrina Reader Online   March 5, 2008 Cockburn / St. Clair A Great Day for John McCain (and Maybe Nader) Joanne Mariner After Guantanamo Fidel Castro The Raid on Ecuador: Underestimating Rafael Correa Christopher Brauchli The Turkish Invasions Steven Sherman Obama and the Prospects for a Renewal of the Left Dave Lindorff Busting Bush & Co. in New England James Murren Bombing Somalia Adam Engel Necropolis Now Website of Day Remember Song   March 4, 2008 Wajahat Ali Mumbo Jumbo: Naming Names with Ishmael Reed William Blum How Could Hillary Have Known? Bill Quigley The Cleansing of New Orleans Ralph Nader The Prince Harry Solution Patrick Irelan Oil and Health in Venezuela James J. Brittain / R. James Sacouman Uribe's Colombia is Destabilizing a New Latin America Norman Solomon The War Election Jacob Hornberger Hillary in Waco: the Missing Apology Andy Worthington Guantánamo and the European Parliament Mike Averko Kosovo and the Press Website of the Day Tex-Mex Primary   March 3, 2008 Jennifer Loewenstein Gazan Holocaust Alan Farago American Politics and the Faltering Economy Richard Gott Colombian Deaths in Ecuador Wajahat Ali Who Speaks for a Billion Muslims? Analyzing the World Gallup Poll with John Esposito Paul Craig Roberts The Mukasey Conspiracy: a Bi-Partisan Attack on the Constitution Robert Weissman When Multinationals Say Adieu Uri Avnery Good Morning, Hamas Martha Rosenberg When Your Meat is a Downer Eva Liddell Leave the Next Dance for Bill Michael Donnelly Will Ferrell Does Flint Website of the Day Muddy Waters: Train Fare Home Blues   March 1 / 2, 2008 Alexander Cockburn The Race Card Paul Craig Roberts The Political Trial of Don Siegelman Kathleen and Bill Christison Nader the Best Antidote to American Imperialism Nelson P. Valdés Cuba After Fidel Christopher Brauchli Meet Mr. Nursultan Nazarbayev: Friend of Bill, George and Dick Ron Jacobs Inside the Secret City: Bomb Making at Oak Ridge John Ross The New Conquistadores: Spain's Reconquest of Mexico Robert Fantina Posturing Over Patriotism: Obama and Those Lapel Pins Robert Weissman Hidden in Plain Sight: Human Rights Hypocrisy Mohammed Omer Fear in Gaza Remi Kanazi Barack Obama and the Politics of Xenophobia Bob Jackson Why is Yellowstone Destroying Its Bison Herd? Richard Rhames Casual Threats: Loaded with Mercury Franklin Lamb Lebanon Awaits the Arrival of the USS Cole Rannie Amiri Showboat Diplomacy: US Warships Steam Toward Lebanon David Michael Green The Three Faces of Hillary: the Politics of Flim-Flam Conn Hallinan Notes from the Southern Cone Faheem Hussain Prince Harry of Afghanistan and the Meaning of Normalcy Poets' Basement Gibbons, Orloski, Gardner and Ford Website of the Weekend The Palestine Chronicle Needs (and Deserves) Your Help!     February 29, 2008 Matt Gonzalez The Obama Craze Jonathan Cook Academic Freedom? Not for Arabs in Israel Joshua Frank Obama and Israel Anthony DiMaggio The Unilateral Presidency: Signing Statements and the Rollback of American Law Linn Washington, Jr. Cop Abuse in America Binoy Kampmark Hubris and Nemesis Robert Bryce Energy Efficiency May be a Good Thing, But It Won't Cut Energy Use Sonja Karkar Australia's Government Continues Its Love Affair with Israel Dave Lindorff A Manchurian Candidate in the White House? Obama or Bush? Website of the Day Olduvai George   February 28, 2008 Patrick Cockburn "Iraq" Falls Apart Fred Gardner The Birth of NAFTA Michael Levitin The Crisis in Kosovo is Just Beginning William S. Lind The Fake State of Kosovo David Macaray A Ray of Hope for Organized Labor Stephen Fleischman Nader's Latest Run: Monkey Wrench or Cattle Prod? George Wuerthner The Myths of Forest Health: Why Ecological Logging is an Oxymoron Laura Carlsen The North American Union Farce Carl Finamore Why the Delta-Northwest Deal Hasn't Taken Off Michael Dickinson The Day I Bombed the House of Commons Website of the Day Plane Stupid   February 27, 2008 David Rosen Playing the Race Card: Obama, Love Across the Color Line and Political Dirty Tricks Vijay Prashad Bomber John: McCain and the 100 Year War Harvey Wasserman Incident at Turkey Point: Did Florida Go to the Radioactive Brink? Andy Worthington Guantánamo's Shambolic Trials: Pentagon Boss Resigns, Ex-Prosecutor Joins Defense Wajahat Ali Pakistan for Sale: an Interview with Ayesha Siddiqa on Pakistan's Military Economy Peter Morici The Auction-Rate Securities Fiasco: a Drama of Greed and Betrayal Stephen Philion Conspiracy Theory, Fears of Betrayal and Today's Anti-War Movement Michael Donnelly Obama by Unanimous Decision Erica Rosenberg / Janine Blaeloch After the Land Deals: Will There be Any Wilderness Left to Protect? Website of the Day Dress Blues   February 26, 2008 Debbie Nathan Confessions of a Gitmo Guard Alan Dershowitz v. Frank Menetrez On Finkelstein Harvey Wasserman How Ohio Got Nuked Michael Colby Ralph Nader vs. the Fundamentalist Liberals Gary Leupp Condi vs. Putin on Bullying Belgrade David Orchard The New Conquistadors: Canada in Afghanistan Martha Rosenberg The Big HRT Fran Shor The Electoral Circus and Nader's Sideshow Serge Halimi The Dom Perignon Socialist Manifesto: Bernard Henri-Levy's Plan for the French Left Global Balkans Neo-Liberalism and Protectorate States in the Post-Yugoslav Balkans: an Interview with Tariq Ali Website of the Day Texistentialism   February 25, 2008 Roger Morris A Death in Damascus Anthony DiMaggio Military Bases, the Media and the Democrats Ralph Nader Why I'm Running Patrick Cockburn Iraq Broils Paul Craig Roberts Kosovo and the Empire Crazies Peter Morici Bernanke's Failing Policies: a Long Recession Looms Dave Lindorff General Welch's Whitewash: What We Still Don't Know About That Minot Nuke Incident Saul Landau / Farrah Hassen Fanatics, Mountebanks and Drillers: a Bloody Oil Film Heather Gray James Orange, Civil Rights Legend Robert Weitzel Accomodating Torture John Halle Kucinich Goes Down Website of the Day Do the Trunk Monkey! February 23 / 4, 2008 Alexander Cockburn The Mushrooming Clouds That Hang Over McCain Paul Craig Roberts Obama and Global Trade Wajahat Ali Omissions of the Commission: an Interview with Phillip Shenon on the 9/11 Commission Ralph Nader Neutering the FDA Jürgen Vsych "What Was Ralph Nader Thinking?" Fidel Castro Watching the US Presidential Campaign from Havana Andy Worthington Britain's Guantánamo David Macaray Unions Under Assault Jeremy Scahill The Real Story Behind Kosovo's Independence David Krieger Stanley Sheinbaum Caging the Cold War Monster Ron Jacobs Building for the Future Michael Garrity The Last, Best Hope for the Northern Rockies Brian McKenna Higher Ed's "Civic Engagements" Get Dumbed Down Missy Beattie Over the Hill with John McCain Fred Gardner American College of Physicians Takes Pro-Cannabis Stand (Mostly) Boris Kagarlitsky The Growth of the Russian Labor Movement Mike Ferner Kick That Barrel Dan Bacher On the Trail with the Border Angels Christopher Ketcham Hillary Goes Where Obama Fears to Tread Poets' Basement Davies and Buknatski Website of the Weekend Obama Mariachi   February 22, 2008 Mike Whitney The Bonfire of Capital Jason Hribal Elephants and the Circus: The Story of Janet Liaquat Ali Khan Arresting Musharraf Joshua Frank That Obama Glow: the Nuclear Industry's Golden Child Dave Lindorff Vicki's John: Ask Not What She Did for Him, Ask What He Did for Her! Liliana Segura When Torture is Old News: McCain's Blonde Diversion Robert Fantina Castro, Bush and Cuba: a Fiasco Waiting to Happen? Yifat Susskind The ABCs of Death: Bush vs. Africa's Women Norm Kent Pushing 60 with Pot Website of the Day Bush Gets Down in Liberia February 21, 2008 Saul Landau Fidel Steps Aside Elizabeth Schulte Left Behind, With No End in Sight: America's Long-Term Unemployed Helen Redmond Health Care as a Human Right Benjamin Dangl Undermining Bolivia Michael Levitin Kosovo's Dilemma Liam Leonard Fear and Loathing on the Emerald Isle Patrick Irelan Land and Food in Venezuela Linn Cohen-Cole Poor Ohio: a Second Letter to Hillary on Her Ties to Monsanto Michael Simmons Daydream Believer: John Stewart, the Miles Davis of Folk Music CounterPunch News Service A Message from the Women of Okinawa to US GIs Website of the Day Cop Abuse in Shreveport             Subscribe Online

Weekend Edition March 22 / 23, 2008 A Review of "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days" Class, Gender and Abortion in Communist Romania By KIM NICOLINI "4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days", the latest installment in new Romanian cinema, is definitely worth the hype and the excitement surrounding it. This is the movie that I've been waiting to see for months, and it did not disappoint. In fact, it far exceeded my expectations. Seeing it projected on the big screen was a cinematic treat that will definitely be the film high point of my year. This is the kind of movie that graces the big screen only ever so often anymore. It's the kind of movie that is wrapped in a seeming minimal realism and simplicity, yet is so deep and complex that your mind can spin around it infinitely. Its hardcore realism, grimy de-aestheticized vision, condensed timeframe, and relentlessly shaking hand-held camera give the film a kind a kind of snapshop sensibility. At first the film's style seems to mask the complexity that is delivered with a handful of characters who come together in the gritty Romanian landscape for one day. Likewise, given the primary subject matter of the movie ­ a girl obtaining an illegal abortion in communist Romania during the end of Ceau_escu's communist regime ­ it is easy to reduce the movie to the Romanian Abortion Movie. But to reduce this film to its basic plot and simply call it an abortion movie is to deny it the complexity and brilliance that reside at its core. Sure this is an abortion movie, and the portrait of what a woman would go through to obtain an illegal abortion in communist Romania is harrowing and horrific, but the movie reaches beyond the subject of illegal abortion. Focusing not on the girl who actually gets the abortion but on her friend who helps her, the movie provides a claustrophobic journey of one woman caught in the tangled matrix of gender and class that permeate her life in communist Romania. The film is not just about abortion, but about the female body and how it's coded by its gender and its social status on the class spectrum. The basic plot of the film takes place in less than 24 hours when Otilia helps her college roommate Gabi obtain an illegal abortion. Structurally the film is very similar another recent Romanian film, The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, which I wrote about recently. Like in Lazarescu, the protagonist, in this case the friend Otilia, goes through a frenetic time-condensed journey and confronts ludicrous systems, class discrimination, neglect and/or abuse, medical nightmares, and a sense of overall disintegration. Oleg Mutu was cinematographer for both films, and his influence clearly is the binding glue between the two films. Mutu delivers an intentionally de-asetheticized vision, in which the ordinary minutiae of existence become symbolic of the overall corruption and dirt of the environment. Like in Lazarescu, the scenes are laden with the objects and set details of everyday life, and those seemingly innocuous and often outright ugly objects take on a kind of grisly meaning. A plastic table cloth, a telephone receiver, a sickly rose in a vase, a couple of fish in a tank, a plastic bag, toilet paper hanging from a roll, a bar of soap, a bath towel become ominous specters of a socio-political envirnoment that is in a state of corrupt decay. The exceptionally realistic sets combined with Mutu's handheld camera and purely diegetic sound (all sound comes from within the narrative frame of the film) make for a sense that we are on an actual real-life journey with Otilia. The use of internal sound within the narrative is amazing -- water dripping, cars passing, dogs barking, feet on stairs, the echoes of voices -- and adds to our experience of inhabiting the camera and the literal space of the film as the camera relentlessly stalks Otilia down halls, through streets, on buses, in hotels, in cars, in bathrooms. As the camera shakes and tracks and documents Otilia, it demands that we pay witness, that we watch through the camera's eye, that we actually become the camera as Otilia navigates her way through the obstacles and horrors that involve the abortion. In one incredible scene when Otilia first meets with the abortionist, the camera actually sits in the driver's seat of the car while Otilia sits in the passenger seat watching the abortionist abuse an older woman (seemingly his mother). So we are witnessing Otilia as she witnesses another woman's abuse. This scene with the abortionist and the older woman is crucial to understanding that we are not just watching an abortion movie. The abortionist, who takes perverse pleasure in subjugating women, is a stand-in for an entire system of extreme patriarchy that subjugates women to horrific ends. The duration and framing of the abortion scene itself is simultaneously a harrowing and nightmarish document of the reality of getting an illegal abortion, but also a kind of distanced observation of women trying to maintain ground while their entire lives and bodies are being compromised by a brutal patriarchal system. While the handheld camera insists that we watch the scene from its eye, the endless dialogue and banter and tension is presented with clinical detachment. The pleasure with which the abortionist wields his power, rather than the abortion itself, is the real nightmare. The manipulative dialogue and cat-and-mouse play that he indulges in seems to go on forever. The camera witnesses the scene with its shaky yet steady eye and forces us to be locked in the room with the characters. The focus on the details of the room ­ the ugly painting over the bed, the hideous lamps, the suitcase, the bed cover ­ make our experience and sense of being trapped in the room all the more real. The fact that the abortionist not only gives the abortion but also forces the two young women to have sex with him moves the violation and consumption of the female body into a more global realm than just that of the abortion. The way that the sex scenes are filmed further removes the focus away from the abortion but to a more systematic consumption of the female body. We don't see the sex occur on screen, but the emphasis is in the aftermath, particularly that of Otilia's sexual violation. The scene in which Otilia washes her genitals after the sex seems more prolonged than Gabi's actual abortion. Despite the fact that the movie centers on Gabi's abortion, the film always returns to Otilia's body and plight. The emphasis on Otilia is critical to understanding the film as being more than just an abortion movie. The entire movie is not about the abortion per se but about Otilia being trapped in a matrix of obligation, gender, servitude, and class in her commitment to help Gabi obtain the abortion. The two women ­ Otilia and Gabi ­ are markedly different characters. Gabi is the total passive female body. She does nothing to help herself and depends entirely on Otilia to do everything for her. On the other hand, Otilia is the frenetically active female body who feels obligated to serve everyone ­ Gabi, the abortionist, her boyfriend. What is quietly implied and cannot be ignored is the class differentiation between Otilia and other characters in the film. Otilia's sense of duty and obligation comes not only from her role as a female but also from her role as one of the lower classes or "simple folk" as her boyfriend's family and friends refer to her. One of the critically tense moments in the film (and there are many which I will talk about in a bit) revolves around Otilia leaving Gabi in the hotel right after the abortion to attend a birthday party for her boyfriend's mother. In a scene that plays on as agonizingly slowly as the actual abortion scene in the hotel, we see Otilia suffocating in ignorant classist banter around a dinner table. Seemingly silly jovial discussion is laden with patriarchal intent, class privilege, and gender and class discrimination. During this scene in which food and talk fly back and forth in front of Otilia's resigned face, we learn not only of Otilia's class difference (she is "simple country folk" as opposed to the "educated city folk"), but we get to see a microcosm of age old patriarchy and class hierarchies that remained firmly in place even under the guise of communism. We see a miniature window on a world where men call the shots, women cook potatoes, and the simple folk are subservient to the privileged. What is less obvious is how Gabi fits into this picture of class hierarchies. The two women not only occupy different roles in regards to being active (Otilia) and passive (Gabi), but it is evident through Gabi's accent, her physical traits, and her overall sense of entitlement and privilege that there is also a class division between Otilia and Gabi. When I went to the movie the first time, I overheard many people talking about Gabi being "selfish." Clearly she is not a sympathetic character, and we are left uneasy with her manipulation and disregard of Otilia. What isn't overtly obvious but is embedded within the "code" of the film is that Gabi's sense of entitlement is a result of her ancestry coming from a privileged class. The scene right after the abortion when Gabi's legs reside passively at the bottom of the frame while the camera focuses on Otilia's stress ravaged face beautifully and quietly shows the divide between the women. Otilia's body is a map of tension and anxiety while Gabi lies passively smoking Otilia's last cigarette. Though the abortion is performed on Gabi's body, Otilia performs all the labor associated with the abortion. She makes arrangements with the abortionist, obtains a hotel, disposes of the fetus while Gabi does nothing, and what she tries to do is completely ineffectual. The entire movie centers on Otilia's service to Gabi because Gabi couldn't possibly endure the lowly interactions necessary to obtain the abortion. Otilia is the workhorse, and in fact the movie is more a day in the life of Otilia's labor and service to Gabi than an actual abortion movie. The fact that the film is an "abortion movie" that sets us up for horror and melodrama but then doesn't deliver what we expect further subverts the idea that this film is simply a "pro-choice" movie. The film repeatedly sets us up for shocking Abortion Horror. When Otilia returns to the hotel and Gabi doesn't answer the door, we expect to find Gabi in a pool of blood, but instead we find her quiet body in bed. When Gabi doesn't move when Otilia calls to her, we expect her to be dead, but instead she stirs awake and says non-chalantly in regards to the fetus, "It came out. It's in the bathroom." The scene when Otilia disposes of the fetus is filmed as a horror narrative. The camera follows her frantically through the dark streets as she carries around the dead fetus in a bag looking for a place to get rid of it. We are set-up to think she is being stalked, robbed, or attacked by dogs, but none of that happens. Instead she throws the baby down a garbage chute with a sickening bump and thud. After Otilia disposes of the fetus and returns to the hotel and Gabi doesn't answer the door, we again expect to find Gabi dead in a pool of blood. Instead we find her in a restaurant eating a plateful of meat. The interesting thing is that all the expected melodrama and horror is from Otilia's perspective, and none of it comes from Gabi. It is Otilia's perspective that lends the sense of threat, tragedy and horror to the film whereas Gabi just assumes everything can be fixed (by Otilia). This division in perception itself is a class signifier. Melodrama and horror are genres (and realities) of the simpler folk. The privileged folk assume that their worries will be taken care of by virtue of their social status. The ending of the film is a beautiful capsule of the real horror of the film. Gabi and Otilia sit in the restaurant and agree to "never talk about this again." In the meanwhile, we hear and see a wedding party going on in the next room affirming a system of matrimony and patriarchy. Otilia turns and looks right at the camera and at us (because in this movie we, the audience, are the camera) as if to say, "So yes, this is how it is." The resigned acknowledgment in Otilia's face is the real horror of the film -- that life was and is like this; that woman are subject to violation and an impossible set of moral codes, obligations, and subservience; that class hierarchies persist even in the guise of communism; that tomorrow will be another day and today was one just like any other despite the horror. As Otilia looks us in the eye, we catch the reflection of headlights on the restaurant window and realize that Otilia and Gabi are trapped behind the glass, their bodies on display, caught between the wedding and the camera. Yes, 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days is an abortion movie. But it is also much more. We would be remiss in our appreciation of the complexity of the film if we didn't look closely at everything in the movie that is not the abortion because it is in the fringe scenes, the set details, the plight of Otilia and the interactions of all the characters where we can excavate much bigger global issues in relation to class and gender. Not only that, then we can really experience and acknowledge what a truly great film this is. Kim Nicolini is an artist, poet and cultural critic. She lives in Tucson, Arizona with her partner, daughter, and a menagerie of beasts. She works a day job to support her art and culture habits. She is currently finishing a book-length essayistic memoir about growing up as a punk sex worker in 1970s San Francisco. Her work has appeared in Bad Subjects, Punk Planet, Bullhorn and Berkeley Poetry Review. She can be reached at: knicolini@gmail.com.

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