The films “Aferim” and “Embrace of the Serpent” open March 25 at UNL’s Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center. Both play through March 31.
Also continuing to show is Michael Moore’s “Where to Invade Next.”
Directed by Radu Jude, “Aferim” follows two riders riding across Eastern Europe in 1835 searching for a runaway gypsy slave who is suspected of having an affair with a nobleman’s wife.
The riders are Constandin, who is unflappable and comments on every situation with a cheery aphorism, and his son, who takes a more contemplative view of the world.
On their odyssey, the duo encounters people of different nationalities and beliefs — Turks and Russians, Christians and Jews, Romanians and Hungarians. Each harbors prejudices passed down from generation to generation against the others.
When Carfin the slave is found, the adventure is far from over in a film that delves into late-feudal Europe history, its power structures and hierarchies, peoples’ ideas of themselves, interactions with minorities and the resulting conflicts.
“Afrim” is not rated with a run time of one hour, 48 minutes.
“Embrace of the Serpent” is the story of a relationship between Karamakate, an Amazonian shaman and the last survivor of this people, and two scientists seeking a sacred healing plant.
The third feature by Ciro Guerra and filmed in black-and-white, the film is inspired by the real-life adventures of explorers Theodor Koch-Grünberg and Richard Evans Schultes. The duo traveled through the Colombian Amazon during the last century in search of the sacred and difficult-to-find psychedelic Yakruna plant.
“Embrace of the Serpent” is not rated with a run time of two hours and three minutes.
Also, continuing at the Ross is “Where to Invade Next.”
In “Where to Invade Next,”Moore confronts pressing issues facing the United States and finds solutions in unlikely places. The comedy explores how Moore wants to restore the American dream to make the country great again. “Where to Invade Next” is rated R for language, some violent images, drug use and brief graphic nudity. The run time is one hour, 50 minutes.
For more information on films at the Ross, including show times and ticket prices, click here or call 402-472-5353.
