Aferim!

Police work is serious business in 19th-century Wallachia. Costandin is a peace officer in pursuit of Carfin, a Roma slave who fled after perhaps enjoying a fling with his master's wife. With Costandin is his young son, Ionita. Together the two cross the wide land on horseback, encountering opposed factions of Turks and Russians, Christians and Jews, and Romanians and Hungarians. Radu Jude's film Aferim! is a comic-adventure (and perhaps a history lesson for Westerners) that nevertheless deals seriously with the little-known enslavement of the Roma people. (It's also Romania's official entry for "best foreign language film" at this year's Academy Awards.) The Webster Film Series screens Aferim! at 7:30 p.m. Friday through Sunday (January 29 to 31) at Webster University's Moore Auditorium (470 East Lockwood Avenue; 314-968-7487 or www.webster.edu/film-series). Tickets are $4 to $6.