Aferim!
Big World Pictures | Release Date: January 22, 2016 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
84
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 17 Critic Reviews
Positive:
17
Mixed:
0
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The GuardianJordan HoffmanJan 21, 2016
It’s worth mentioning again that, somehow, this movie, with all its full-frontal historical horror, is still loaded with laughs. Read full review
100
The New York TimesA.O. ScottJan 21, 2016
Shot in richly toned, wide-screen black and white, Aferim! looks like an elegant exercise in period playacting. But it casts a fierce, revisionist eye on the past, finding the cruelty and prejudice that lie beneath the pageantry. Read full review
91
IndieWireEric KohnFeb 19, 2015
Aferim! amounts to a serious endeavor designed to explore many facets of its era through the lens of people trapped in it. Their crude dialogue, real as it may be, hints at comedic possibilities while offering a shrewd look at people defined by their circumstances. Read full review
91
The PlaylistJessica KiangFeb 19, 2015
The current of informed anger, directed at those who stand by while injustice and bigotry flourish, is unmistakable and turns the whole film into a kind of clever folk fable-cum-protest song. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesSheri LindenJan 21, 2016
Aferim! conjures a world in flux. From the ironic "Bravo!" of its title to its Chekhovian final moment after an episode of terrible brutality, Jude's film connects that world, unforgettably, to our own. Read full review
90
Village VoiceMichael AtkinsonJan 19, 2016
Quite possibly the only film ever made focused on the centuries-long enslavement of the Romani in Eastern Europe, Aferim! plays like a sleight of hand, amusing us at a distance with vulgarisms and entrancing us with countryside while the bloody work of civilization grinds on out of the corner of our eye. Read full review
90
VarietyJay WeissbergFeb 19, 2015
While its tone is occasionally overly strident, Aferim! is an exceptional, deeply intelligent gaze into a key historical period, done with wit as well as anger. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comPeter SobczynskiJan 22, 2016
Depressingly universal and even more depressingly contemporary more than two centuries down the line. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzFeb 25, 2016
Jude refuses to force a happy ending upon the audience. Things happen as they happen, and if one scene is especially hard to stomach, it leads to a kind of grim resolve to just keep forging ahead as best you can. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterStephen DaltonFeb 19, 2015
Do not be fooled by the playful, irreverent tone. Behind its attractive surface sheen of lusty humor and ravishing visuals, this Trojan Horse drama makes some spiky topical points about the lingering scars of slavery, feudalism, misogyny and racism. Read full review
75
The Seattle TimesSoren AndersenMar 24, 2016
Shot in stark black and white, the picture’s sense of place and time is strong — pungently so. Read full review
75
Washington PostStephanie MerryFeb 11, 2016
Much of the humor derives from how despicable these characters can be, and Jude doesn’t so much push the envelope as turn it into a paper airplane and let it fly. Read full review
75
The Film StageMichael SnydelJan 27, 2016
Strikingly shot and politically rich, Aferim! feels important, but too often it also feels like a fiery lecture inflected with moments of poetic grace. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleJan 21, 2016
The movie establishes a quality of history by filming in black and white and shooting from a distance, so as to emphasize the broad picture. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineJesse CataldoJan 18, 2016
The film's black humor is inextricably tied to serious questions about moral relativism and personal responsibility. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriJan 24, 2016
Like much of Romanian cinema, Aferim!’s narrative and stylistic gambit doesn’t quite click until the final scenes. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloJan 21, 2016
To the extent that the film has an emotional journey, it’s the story of this man’s very, very slight moral awakening, which achieves nothing whatsoever and doesn’t necessarily look as if it’s going to stick. Read full review
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