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LEPTIRICA (1973) Лептирица dir. Đorđe Kadijević

Have you seen Leptirica (1973)?

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Haven’t even heard of this movie

Voting ended onDec 19, 2025

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I remember many people said this film was racist against Romanians, but it had a Romanian expert? I think many were saying it was more racist than the original or wtv

And those people are such the experts in Romanian history and culture they couldn’t recognize the Inn scenes take place in Hunedoara (Transylvania), and kept talking about Romania in general as if regions aren’t diverse. I don’t know who’s “stereotyping”; the trolls online who think Romania (or any country) is a monolith, or the director who spend years researching Transylvania (including on site), hired experts and a Romanian crew, and set part of his story in a particular location and cultural background these “online experts” can’t identify. Transylvania has a very particular history and culture, why are they talking about Romania in such broad terms?

I only remember one review in particular going on about this topic, but the moment they said the ritual to locate the vampire’s grave was “all so ridiculous, so divorced from any actual superstitions or customs” it became clear they have no idea what they are talking about. This ritual is well documented by folklorists, present in several Eastern European countries, and there’s even a scene recreating it in 1973 Serbian horror cult classic “Leptirica” (which Eggers named as one of his cinematic inspirations, by the way; that scene comes directly from this film). That whole review is a meaningless rant by someone who thinks they are some sort of intelectual authority based on their nationality, neglecting this story is set in the 19th century, not in nowadays Hunedoara; again, they can’t even identify it’s Hunedoara County (“an an[o]ymous Romanian village in the “Carpathian Alps”), nor that Hutter ends up in Bukovina, when the costumes give away the location (“show, don’t tell”). Someone who knows Romanian history and culture is able to recognize these details.

Most of these accusations are really about the source material; you can blame it on Bram Stoker, not Robert Eggers, Murnau or even Werner Herzog. The Romani work for Dracula, it is what it is. However, here, the Roma characters are played by actual Romani, not only actors but dancers, as well. The dance and music are culturally Romani. These characters speak Romani, not Romanian like the Innkeepers. Their cultural background was deeply researched even though they have little screentime. Name another Dracula based film or tv show (out of the around 200 out there) that went to these lengths to represent 19th century Romani culture. Or Transylvania for that matter. These people crying xenophobia are the one who wanted Exoticism and Orientalism, not authenticity and historical accuracy. Probably the same people who went on and on about Count Orlok having a moustache, or couldn’t recognize the Cossack inspired look.