AFERIM!

Like Don Quixote flanked by Sancho Panza, the gendarme Costandin and his son Ionita ride through the vast steppes of Wallachia, on the trail of the run-away bondservant Carfin. The film, which begins in 1835 as an absurd Western set in a Romanian no man’s land, poses questions about the acceptance of others in society both back then and now. Little by little, the main characters earn our empathy and the unfolding father-son story becomes a parable on what it means to be human. Without sentimentality and with its feet firmly planted in historical fact, the winner of the Silver Bear for Best Director at Berlinale 2015 tackles topics such as misogyny, anti-ziganism and anti-Semitism with aplomb.