Aferim!

A policeman searches for a runaway gypsy in Radu Jude’s hilarious and magnificently shot Wallachian western.

One of the vanguards of modern Romanian cinema, Radu Jude (The Happiest Girl in the World) takes a startling change of direction with this magnificently mounted Wallachian western. Chronicling a policeman’s extensive search through 1830s Romania for a runaway gypsy who’s had an affair with his master’s wife; Jude hilarious script punctures the hypocrisies and inequalities of life in the preening social strata of the Ottoman Empire – and directs us to ponder how little has changed.

Painstakingly authentic, gorgeously shot in black-and-white ‘Scope and frequently very funny, Aferim! is yet another standout exemplar from Romanian cinema