AFERIM! REMINDS EUROPEANS THAT GYPSIES WERE ONCE SLAVES
Directed by Radu Jude, Aferim! takes filmviewers back to the days of 1825 Wallachia (in Romania), not out of nostalgia but to portray how chaotic life was and how the Romanian people coped in the countryside amid the ever-present possibility of war with Russia and gypsies treated as slaves by feudal land barons known as boyars, the Ottoman rulers. What carries the narrative is that the local boyar, Iordache Cîndescu (played by Alexandru Dabiju), has assigned Constable Constandin (Teador Corban) to retrieve escaped slave Carfin Pandolean (Toma Cuzin) who had sex with his libertinistic wife, Smaranda (Luminita Gheorghiu). The manhunt by horseback involves a picture of the agricultural life of the country, including a festival and an inn with entertainment of all sorts. What is most fascinating is that Constable Constandin is so poetic in his interactions, especially while teaching his son Ionita (Mihai Comanoiu) how to be tough and worldly-wise with a liberal dose of profanity. The title of the film is a Turkish word meaning “Bravo!” that Romanians have incorporated into their language despite their hatred of the Ottomans. There are many laugh lines, especially the ethnic stereotypes glibly shared by a priest along the road (Alexandru Bindea), so the film is best viewed by a group that is a little tipsy. For those surprised that slavery of gypsies was then taken for granted, the fact is that slavery was legal for 500 years until abolished in Romania during 1856. Romania as a state emerged in 1859 from the merger of the principalities of Moldova and Wallachia but was first called “Romania” in 1866 and only became independent from the Ottoman Empire in 1877. The full history is even more complex. MH