Îmi este indiferent daca în istorie vom intra ca barbari (2018)'s comments

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A textured satire about historical amnesia and the sustainable power of propaganda, Radu Jude's I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians may overtly be about Romania's collaboration with Germany in World War II and its rampant antisemitism, but it could just as well be about any country's (willfully or ignorantly) forgotten misdeeds - to hit most of my readers, Canada' s mistreatment of indigenous populations, Britain's colonialism, and the United States' love affair with slavery. The film features the impeccable Ioana Iacob as a theater director trying to stage a big public reenactment that includes the massacre of Jews, an event swept under the rug by decades of historical white-washing. The event itself is shot in video, so it appears to have been staged for the town square, not the camera, and I had to wonder how much of the public's reaction was staged, and how much was real. If it was, it's even more shocking. Here's the thing. The film gives us all of Iacob's research, as well as long discussions about history and philosophy as she tries to convince city officials or even the show's participants. We're in the loop more than most. But without all that context, what do actual audiences at the show think? Each person according to their own bias or lack of understanding may miss the ironies, or see it as a patriotic work. Shockingly, it seems to inflame anti-Semitic impulses. There are a LOT of things at play in this film, and many brilliant moments (Iacob's last scene, for example, is subtle, but acidic). I agree with the film that we should confront our dark histories, but we can't confront what we don't know (or for the hard-headed, don't believe) exists.

1 year 8 months ago