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Romania, Bulgaria, Czech Republic · 2015
1h 48m
Director Radu Jude
Starring Teodor Corban, Mihai Comanoiu, Toma Cuzin, Alexandru Dabija
Genre Drama, History
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In Wallachia, Romania, in the early 19th century, a nobleman hires policeman Costandin to find Carfin, a Roma slave who fled his estate after having an affair with his wife. This film uses the ensuing adventure to offer harsh insight into Roma slavery, a historical occurrence that remains little known today.
The New York Times by A.O. Scott
Shot in richly toned, wide-screen black and white, Aferim! looks like an elegant exercise in period playacting. But it casts a fierce, revisionist eye on the past, finding the cruelty and prejudice that lie beneath the pageantry.
Aferim! amounts to a serious endeavor designed to explore many facets of its era through the lens of people trapped in it. Their crude dialogue, real as it may be, hints at comedic possibilities while offering a shrewd look at people defined by their circumstances.
While its tone is occasionally overly strident, Aferim! is an exceptional, deeply intelligent gaze into a key historical period, done with wit as well as anger.
Slant Magazine by Jesse Cataldo
The film's black humor is inextricably tied to serious questions about moral relativism and personal responsibility.
The current of informed anger, directed at those who stand by while injustice and bigotry flourish, is unmistakable and turns the whole film into a kind of clever folk fable-cum-protest song.
Village Voice by Michael Atkinson
Quite possibly the only film ever made focused on the centuries-long enslavement of the Romani in Eastern Europe, Aferim! plays like a sleight of hand, amusing us at a distance with vulgarisms and entrancing us with countryside while the bloody work of civilization grinds on out of the corner of our eye.
San Francisco Chronicle by Mick LaSalle
The movie establishes a quality of history by filming in black and white and shooting from a distance, so as to emphasize the broad picture.
The A.V. Club by Mike D'Angelo
To the extent that the film has an emotional journey, it’s the story of this man’s very, very slight moral awakening, which achieves nothing whatsoever and doesn’t necessarily look as if it’s going to stick.
Los Angeles Times by Sheri Linden
Aferim! conjures a world in flux. From the ironic "Bravo!" of its title to its Chekhovian final moment after an episode of terrible brutality, Jude's film connects that world, unforgettably, to our own.
The Hollywood Reporter by Stephen Dalton
Do not be fooled by the playful, irreverent tone. Behind its attractive surface sheen of lusty humor and ravishing visuals, this Trojan Horse drama makes some spiky topical points about the lingering scars of slavery, feudalism, misogyny and racism.
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