Aferim! (Romanian, 2015)

The director does a fine job of documenting a certain time period – 1835 Wallachia. Though the movie is a satire of the political situation in 1835, it reflects the economic class divide in a very realistic and universally relatable fashion. The mindsets and prejudices of people in different strata of the society – a monk who is racist, the gypsy slave who is so used to oppression, the constable who is a mute witness and their moral dilemmas are still very relevant.

The writing and the dialogues play a pertinent role in bringing out this period to life. The relatability of the characters is mainly because they are well written. Half way through the movie, when Constandin asks his son, what would people two hundred years later in time, think of their situations – this is an introspective moment brought in by the well written dialogue.

Teodor Corban as Constandin is just the apt choice for bringing out both the humane side of a small cog in a big machinery and the reflection of the inhuman side of the system in each member, who are willingly or unwillingly part of the system. Though the acting doesn’t stand out as a separate entity with very few close-ups used, the movie is realistic only because the acting complements the writing.

The black and white cinematography with languid long shots and abundant wide frames akin to paintings, suits the milieu brilliantly. The house of the boyar, the slave settlements, the wide luscious mountainous landscapes, the claustrophobic inn show the amount of painstaking effort invested in art direction for this movie.

The initial sections of the movie before it settles down feature quite a few random conversations which could have been intentional, but tend to disengage the audience with a meandering nature – a test of patience that needs to be withstood to experience the awesome pieces that follow.