CRITICS’PICKS

If you want to see the year’s best foreign-language film, ignore the fact that it didn’t get an Oscar nomination and see this exceptional Romanian film that won the Palme d’Or at Cannes as well as the European Film Award. Even if you think you know about it, this film’s confidence, ambition and impact will take you by surprise and shake you up. As written and directed by Cristian Mungiu, this story of a clandestine abortion in communist Romania takes pains not to do anything that, in the director’s words, “could be seen as staged or conventional.” Instead, it conveys unblinking and despairing emotional truth with enough intensity to leave you gasping for air.