The exhaustingly titled I Do Not Care If We Go Down In History As Barbarians is the third film from Romanian filmmaker, Radu Jude. It follows Mariana (played by a wonderful Ioana Iacob), a passionate theater director, who is taking charge of a reenactment that will be staged for public viewing. The reenactment is of a battle that occurred before the Odessa Massacre of 1941, and she has poured every ounce of her being to make sure everything is right, but she continues to face opposition during the process, from some of her actors to a government official with concerns that range from sensible to ludicrous.
But in order to understand why, a quick history lesson! Following a victory in capturing the city from the Soviets, in October of 1941, remaining German troops teamed up with Romanian forces to raid the city of Odessa, Ukraine in response to a bombing. Their rampage resulted in the murder of somewhere between 25,000 to 34,000 Jews. The men responsible for the order was Ion Antonescu, the deeply anti-Semitic and authoritarian Prime Minister of Romania, and the title of this film is a direct quote from him, which basically encouraged a system of terror and oppression that eventually led to something like the Odessa Massacre. If it helps make you feel any better, he was eventually taken out of power after his country’s coup, tried for his war crimes, and executed in 1946, but not without leaving a significant, if overlooked, mark in WWII history.
That last bit in the end is the most important detail that informs the entire film – “overlooked.” It’s made pretty clear in the film that the subject matter, and more specifically, the Romanian’s direct involvement, is a very sensitive subject that either makes people uncomfortable, sparks denial, and maybe even excuses. That’s the line the film operates on, and while it certainly sounds dour, the film keeps a sly and subtle layer of pitch black comedy to make it all the more palatable. It’s usually through banter between Mariana and one of the people working for her, or through a simple, but effective gag that makes you giggle, like one moment where she basically directs these two children on how to put their arms up in surrender properly in a cheerful manner, going as far as showing them a picture of what is probably a young Jewish child who didn’t live long after the picture was taken. I wouldn’t call the film a knee-slapper, but there are obvious moments where it’s clear that Jude is playing with us.
Having not seen Jude’s prior films, I don’t know if this style is new to this film, but there is an avid Godard influence throughout. Be it through the way the camera often frames Mariana, to the lingering tracking shots, fourth wall breaks, the way he plays with certain colors and images, especially in the finale. It makes for a compelling watch, but at a two hour and 18 minute runtime, it does push things a bit. It does drag at several points; certain conversations run way longer than necessary, especially since they basically explain the themes of the film out loud multiple times. It could lose enough to put it under two hours, and not miss much.
As someone who did not know about the massacre, with everything I learned coming from this movie and the bit of research I did before writing this, I Do Not Care If We Go Down In History As Barbarians is surprisingly accessible. And that’s because its themes are not only universal, they’re incredibly timely, and not in a way that feels forced or trite. The basic idea of the movie is about confronting a nation’s past, and fully reconciling with the bad things it may have done, the best ways to move forward, and avoid finding ourselves in a similar position. Given the place where American politics is at right now, this movie is an oddly perfect way to dramatize these themes. While I may have struggled with staying engaged here and there, once we get to the final half hour, the film delivers one of the most hard-hitting pieces of filmmaking I’ve seen this year. It’s exhilarating, sobering, and bold. Jude takes some mighty big swings here on an intellectual level, and a filmmaking level, and it leaves you with so many thoughts that I’d give it an easy recommendation despite some of its faults.