Last Thursday, I went to see “Aferim!”, a movie that was about Gypsies. Since I did not read the description, I thought the movie would be more of a documentary and was prepared for some dry movie. However, it was completely not what I expected…

One thing I learned from this movie was how possessive and sexual men were in the 1800s, especially those of Eastern European decent. While people today tend to marry whomever whenever they want, our culture has become less centered around family. However after watching the movie, I observed that marriage was taken more seriously and was considered a necessity for survival. In other words, conducting adultery or being unfaithful towards one’s mate was punishable by death. Especially for women, wives had to be obedient towards their husband. This movie made me realize how much our culture (or at least that of European heritage) has drastically changed over such a short period of time.

While foreign films tend to be more difficult to understand, this specific movie was pretty simple.When I first figured out that the movie would be in a foreign language and in Black/white, I thought that I will eventually drift off to sleep. However, because the story was not complex and had a smooth flow throughout, I found that I was able to stay engaged throughout the entire movie. I think this showed (at least to me) that life (at least from the perspective of the movie) in the 1800s was more simple and slower moving. While people did have hardships and conflicts, the average person’s lifestyle appeared to be more simple and thus less complex. In other words through this movie, I observed that while life on earth has become “advanced” through technology, it has also added numerous complexities. However, I know it is not good to judge form one movie and thus conclude that in this specific situation, people appeared to have simpler lives.

This movie therefore has given me a new understanding of how life has changed and evolved over time.