Aferim!

In Wallachia in 1835 a constable and his son are sent to find a boyar's runaway Roma slave. Everyone they meet on the road offers an opinion: a priest, a Turkish trader, peasants, an innkeeper. All of it is assembled from real texts of the period, court records and correspondence. Radu Jude shot it in black and white in a wide frame, in the shape of a western, and at the end of the chase nobody turns out to be the hero. The most shattering thing about it is that slavery is presented not as exceptional cruelty but as an order everyone takes for granted. It won best director in Berlin and opened public discussion in Romania about the history of Roma slavery. Who it is for: viewers who like historical critique and Eastern European cinema. Who it is not for: anyone uncomfortable with racist language reproduced uncensored.