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PRODUCTION Romania

Radu Jude in development with Aferim!

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- The director goes back in time to when gypsies were slaves

After winning the most important six awards at the Gopos with his Everybody in Our Family [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Radu Jude
film profile
]
, Radu Jude (photo) is currently developing a period drama, Aferim!. The film is produced by Ada Solomon for HiFilm, the production company enjoying the acclaim of the Golden Bear won at this year’s Berlinale with Calin Peter Netzer’s Child’s Pose [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Calin Peter Netzer
film profile
]
.

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Aferim! is written by Jude together with Florin Lazarescu and is set in the 19th century, a time when Gypsy slavery was common. The story revolves around a regional policeman, Costandin, who is hired by a local boyar to find Carfin, a Gypsy slave who had run away from his estate after having an affair with the boyar’s wife. Accompanied by his adolescent son and his deputy Ghita, Costandin sets out to find the fugitive, starting a journey full of adventures.

The film will mix elements of picaresque novel with elements of a classic American western, being shot in almost its entirety in the open. It’s one of the things that made Jude interested in the project. The director told Cineuropa about his desire to “confront certain types of human relationships (between men and women, between Romanians and Gypsy slaves, between parents and children) from those times with those from the present”.

The team is still far from putting together the €1.1m budget and it’s not certain when the shooting will begin. The director intends to do an extensive casting for his period drama, mixing professional actors with amateurs.  Aferim! (a Turkish word which means 'Bravo!') may prove controversial in Romania, a country which struggles to solve the problem of minorities‘ integration. Gypsy slavery, although thoroughly attested by historians for as many as seven centuries in the country’s history, is not a very popular topic in modern times.

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