Aferim (13 cents)

Aferim is a Romanian film that has achieved a critic rating of 190 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and high Metacritic and Imdb ratings. “Wow”, you say.

Well let me tell you, it is one of the most painful, hardest to sit through movies I have ever seen. Period. No equivocation.

Romania 1834. Nasty noble families, miserable gypsy slaves, satanic priests, unscrupulous traders, and a bounty hunter and his son chasing an escaped slave and returning him to his owner. Why did the slave run away on the first place? Because the noble’s unattractive wife  “seduced” him. And what was his punishment? All I will tell you is that his days as a sexual predator or predatee are over.

Black and white.  No musical score. Continual unnecessary violence of the worst kind. Unkind to gypsies. Gratuitous remarks about Jews, who don’t even figure into the story line.

I give it four yucks.