"Confidently confirming his position in the vanguard of Romanian cinema, Radu Jude turns from his darkly witty depictions of modern life to an extraordinarily vivid (and even more impressive!) recreation of the past. Shot in magnificent black-and-white ‘Scope and set in the Wallachian wilderness in the 1830s, the western-style story chronicles the searh conducted by a constable (the excellent Teodor Corban) and his son for a runaway Roma slave who’s wanted by his boyar master for seducing his wife. Painstakingly researched and boasting a credibly archaic (and frequently very funny) script which subtly illuminates the beliefs, ideas, values and aspirations of the Ottoman Empire at the time, it reveals how the rich, pious and powerful treated the poor and disenfranchised with amazingly callous, barbaric cruelty – and drops subtle hints at how little may have changed. Corrosively acerbic and quite unlike anything else, this is bold, truly beautiful filmmaking." Geoff Andrew
Aferim || 108 min ||Director Radu Jude
Producer Ada Solomon
Screenwriters Radu Jude, Florin Lăzărescu
With Teodor Corban, Mihai Comănoiu, Cuzin Toma
Romania-Bulgaria-Czech Republic 2015
UK distribution STUDIOCANAL
Text and Image: BFI Film Festival website
