Aferim! 2016

In 1835 Wallachia, Costandin, an aging constable, is tasked with locating Carfin, a Roma slave accused of stealing from his master, the boyar Iordache. He sets out across the countryside with his son Ioniță and the deputy, traversing a landscape dotted with monasteries, Roma gold-panners, a priest prone to spouting stereotypes, and travellers who bear the marks of hajduk violence. Their search leads them through a tapestry of life on the margins, where trust is scarce and power is often exercised with little mercy. After bribing a constable in a neighboring county for information, Costandin manages to narrow the net and track down Carfin at the home of a peasant craftsman. In the same sweep, they also take into custody Țintiric, a child slave who has run away from a brutal master.

Carfin speaks with quiet dignity about the forces that pushed him to flee. He reveals that his flight was prompted by being drawn to Sultana, the boyar’s wife, and on the journey back he paints a stark picture of his hardships, begging the lawmen to take him as their slave rather than see him harmed. Costandin, moved by the tale, remains pragmatic and cautious, warning that the outcome would likely be a harsh beating rather than any real mercy. The group faces a morally fraught choice: they decide to sell Țintiric to a nobleman at a market, a decision made despite the boy’s protests and the personal cost to him.

That night they lodge at an inn, and Costandin reflects on a long memory from his past—his service under Tudor Vladimirescu during the Wallachian uprising of 1821. The mood grows heavier as Ioniță is sent to sleep with a prostitute while Costandin himself lies with the same woman, revealing a pattern of survival through complicity in a world governed by power and hard choices. Ioniță privately suggests releasing Carfin, but Costandin firmly rejects the idea, insisting on adherence to the letter of the law and uttering a grim, almost fatal line: you can’t feed the wolf and save your lambs.

The following day brings the stark reality of Iordache’s household. At the boyar’s residence, Costandin learns of the abuses Sultana has suffered at the hands of her husband, deepening the film’s meditation on cruelty and control. After receiving his pay, Costandin pleads for leniency toward Carfin, a request that is bluntly denied. The boyar’s response is brutal and public: Carfin is castrated, paraded around town, and the act is further taunted by throwing his testicles at Sultana. The moment marks a bitter turning point, and the four men depart quickly, each carrying the weight of what they have witnessed. Costandin voices a quiet sorrow for the world’s unwillingness—or perhaps its inability—to change, while reaffirming to Ioniță that a future on the military path could offer some measure of improvement and purpose, even if the present remains harsh and unyielding.