Aferim!

an old story. about a society and its people, traditions and every day life. a film who reminds a world who has only reflection for a lost age. same brutal language like many Romanian films after 1989, the same desire for appreciation, using dark clichés. . but a special message. like a testimony, a kind of parable, as a bitter story about life, world, destiny, justice and faith. Radu Jude does an good work.with a profound commercial purpose. but he explores the profound manner to discover/define an universe who describes the habits of present Romania. so, a gray movie , decent performances, nice script - puzzle of old writings, songs ,careful documentation, delicate traces from Bergman, trip in heart of a circle who remains frame from Balkans. a film who could be a deep subjective history lesson. in fact, only support for reflection. about the roots of present.

an useful film. for understand the roots of modern Romania. a beautiful one. for archaic language's flavor, for the nuances of emotions, for the powerful clichés who defines the Walachian society not only in the year 1835. a seductive film. for the good performances, for the crumbs from great films, for the art to broke the limits between artistic film and documentary. an interesting film. for the science to reflect a period's deep lines of life. for humanity and for the grace of details. for the art not to remand but recreate not only a portrait but a state . for dialogs and for the values. for something who reflects the profound Romania behind the definitions or verdicts. Teodor Corban does an admirable job and Radu Jude becomes more than a promise for Romanian cinema. because, for the foreign public Aferim ! could be a slice of exotic world from Balkans in the XIX century. for the Romanians it represents chain of answers for a lot of questions. and, maybe, an exercise of honesty.

Set in 1835 Wallachia (now southern Romania), approximately half-way in time between Miguel de Cervantes' masterpiece and present day, the film follows Constandin, a bounty hunter, and his son Ionita, as they chase a runaway gypsy slave. And yes, there is a Dulcinea del Toboso, maybe less adored and more punched in the face, and yes, they do stop at the inn, and yes, the combination of Romanian proverbs and down to earth conversations is reminiscent of the Don Quixote-Sancho Panza exchanges. The father and son journey is recreated from historical, literary and musical sources by the Director Radu Jude with creativity, intelligence and obvious sympathy for that part of the world.

Beautifully shot from a necessary distance by Marius Panduru in black and white, the movie smoothly fades in and out of images, thoughts, prejudices and superstitions characteristic of a society marked by poverty, corruption, racism, xenophobia, misogyny, and religious intolerance. Things of the past, one might say, things of the past.

Teodor Corban gives Constandin determination, humor and a certain kindness, mainly directed toward Ionita (a well-cast Mihai Comanoiu) and rarely toward the gypsy slave Carfin (Toma Cuzin, in a convincing role). Mihale Sirbu and her tormented character Sultana skillfully navigate the dangerous waters of passion and fear, especially in the menacing presence of boyar Iordache (Alexandru Dabija). In a deceptively easy role, Alexandru Bindea portrays a Priest who summarizes the mentalities of the time.

So, is "Aferim!" a masterpiece? Unfortunately, although it comes so close, is not. Shot in only 23 days (according to an interview given by Radu Jude) the movie appears to be assembled in a hurry. The verbal and physical violence is overwhelming. After seeing the movie, go home and hide all scissors! Radu Jude decided that cruelty is the legacy of that era and should also be the mark of his movie. He placed the most violent scene at the very end to shock the audiences and festival juries, with vastly different results. Should that scene had been placed earlier, the mark of the movie could have been the donquixotesque father and son horseback trip across Wallachia in search of the meaning of life. Too bad that instead of a masterpiece we got a master and a piece.

Being based on lots of writings from that era, I suppose that this movie reflects a fair image of life in Tara Romaneasca (Wallachia) of the 19th Century, with its' patterns and prejudices. It probably does some justice to today's Romani, when Europe encounters them again and there is no narrative to explain who their ancestors were. And maybe it does some justice to today's Romanians too, when the European public finds out what is the distinction between Romanians and Romani.

The movie can evoke amusement, disapproval, empathy. However, the spectator discovers more and more that comedy turns to tragedy.

I appreciate the fact that Aferim has complex characters that are not entirely positive or negative.

I'm of Romanian descent, so I'm not entirely objective on this, but as far as film can actually change perceptions of how we see the world around us, "Aferim" is without a doubt an unmatched masterpiece and an absolute first in many ways.

It's a rare Romanian historical drama set before the 20th century (with the exception of historical biopics of communist era). It's thematically a Western (or Eastern), since it involves a long journey on horseback, strongly and intentionally recalling "The Searchers". Most importantly, it's an endless series of interchanges with representatives of society back then, by which virtually every social problem of the present day is touched.

The genius of this film is that it follows a timeline, through which the spectator is at times bemused and at times horrified by the behavior of the main protagonist, a constable charged with capturing a runaway slave accompanied by his inept son. In a thoroughly realistic way unlike any historical film I have ever seen, we see him treat priests and nobles with respect and peasants and Roma with indifferent cruelty. Sometimes he shows a conscience, as when bonding with his son or asking the slave owner for clemency upon returning him. Sometimes he is shockingly ruthless, like when he sells a Rom boy they also picked up to a passing noble because he wants to afford drinking and whoring.

Not only is this the first portrayal of slavery in Romania, a topic not taught in schools and therefore quite controversial. It is a completely naturalistic portrayal as well, unlike any emotionally charged tales out of Hollywood. It easily beats the credibility of "12 Years a Slave", because Jude maintains a sardonic, matter-of-fact narrative instead of drenching his film in moral lessons about the nature of good and evil. Teodor Corban delivers his cop character as a product of his times, with no judgment or exoneration of his actions. If there is one slight weakness at all, it's that the dialogues are sometimes very fast and probably very difficult to translate. As a Romanian raised abroad, I found myself guessing at roughly half of the vocabulary, and even though I got most of the irony, I would not know how to explain it to foreigners and keep the meaning intact.

"Aferim!" means "Excellent!" as a Turkish exclamation (recalling that Wallachia at he time was a vassal to the Ottoman Empire - when the constable sends a Turkish carriage the wrong way to spite the Turks, this is how his son praises him. So the title perfectly describes the film in one word - a tale of a time when the ignorant hated everyone else, not realizing how similar they were. When the privileged few treated the abject poor as mere objects, aided by the apathy of commoners, who could not imagine any alternative. This horror mixed with irony resonated strongly with audiences, and would certainly justify a foreign language Oscar next year.