I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians

Mariana, a theatre director, is preparing a public square performance commissioned by the city. Its subject is the massacre of tens of thousands of Jews by the Romanian army in Odessa in 1941. Through rehearsals the actors argue about history, a council official keeps trying to soften the scenes, and Mariana refuses to soften anything. The title is a direct quotation. Marshal Ion Antonescu, ordering the deportation of the Jews, said he did not care if he went down in history as a barbarian. By putting that line on the poster, Radu Jude states his subject at the outset: how a country narrates its own crime. The long argument scenes are deliberate, pushing the talk driven vein of Romanian cinema as far as it will go. The closing performance is shown together with the reaction of the crowd watching it, and that is where the real discomfort lands. It won the grand prize at the Karlovy Vary film festival. Who it is for: viewers who like political cinema and arguments about history. Who it is not for: anyone avoiding dense dialogue and a running time past two hours.