Anamaria Vartolomei in Happening (IFC Films)

Few movies can be as topical right now as Happening. In the shadow of the Supreme Court’s probable overturning of Roe v. Wade, Happening plunges us back to the rotten old days when there were almost zero options out of an unwanted pregnancy. Director Audrey Diwan’s film is taut, quietly desperate, and borderline airless, reflecting the sense of entrapment the young woman at its center, who has to fight every of the frame of the way.

A university student in early 1960s France, Anne (Anamaria Vartolomei) impresses teachers with her intelligence and possesses literary aspirations we have every reason to believe she will fulfill. (The film is based on a 2000 autobiographical novel by Annie Ernaux.) She enjoys a supportive relationship with her mother (Sandrine Bonnaire), who has high hopes for her daughter to be the first in her working-class family to graduate from college. Her two best girlfriends look up to her and admire her brains and self-possession. However, when Anne finds out she’s pregnant during a routine medical exam, she not only faces expulsion from school and merciless social stigma, but she absolutely can’t confide in anyone. The sudden emotional separation from her loved ones is almost harder to bear than the bad news.

The noose tightens as Anne finds it harder to hide her condition. Doctors speak to her with a formality that barely disguises contempt. A haughty teacher badgers the distressed young woman to concentrate on her studies in front of an entire class. Anne’s dates and male friends are sexually opportunistic and even possessive, but they drop the ball at the first sign of trouble—the camera often follows behind the backs of men striding away as Anne doggedly follows. Anne’s greatest asset, her intelligence, may make made her a target in the eyes of some when her fortunes turn. Only her most avid persistence can locate a solution to her problem, and it comes at a high cost in every way.

Some might compare The Happening to the Romanian abortion drama 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, but Diwan’s film is tighter, less lurid, and more interior. There’s no outright villain to rage against, only social (mostly male) callousness and rigidity. A sparse, almost eerie score accentuates a prevailing sense of blindsided peril. Lead actress Vartolomei anchors the film with a smart, controlled performance, but lets you see the panic inside. For her part, director Diwan lets raw, painful physical events unfold beneath an unsparing eye, handling Anne’s predicament without a shred of the moralizing that might mar an American film.

Experiencing Happening is enough to make you thankful we don’t live in such a nightmare world anymore. Except today, perhaps we do.