“I do not care if we go down in History as Barbarians” (RO/CZ/F/BG/D 2018, Radu Jude)
RO/CZ/F/BG/GER 2018, D: Radu Jude, A: Ioana Iacob, Alex Bogdan, Alexandru Dabija, 139′, OV with English subtitles, DCP
The film’s title are words that have been uttered in the Romanian cabinet in 1941. Words that discoursively initialised the ethnic cleansings led by collaborative prime minister Ion Antonescu. Radu Jude’s film orbits around this sentence, comments on it, traces and alienates it. At the very beginning, actor Ioana Jacob steps into the frame, introduces herself as theatre directress Mariana Marin and slipts into her role. She plans a publicly arranged reenactment that is well-researched and that is to counteract a present, selective historical amnesia by addressing the Romanian involvement in the holocaust.
Emerging from that is not a simple, historic holocaust plot but a multilayered story located in the present time, that by using documentary aestehtics connects a past present with a present past in a metafictional manner. As artistic principles, Brecht and Godard shimmer at the horizon. The film faces its sensitive topic with a script full of wit, straightforward and elegant camera work, and a playful sense of irony without losing track of flawed humanities. “I DO NOT CARE IF WE GO DOWN IN HISTORY AS BARBARIANS” is full of dialectic moments and entertains to the point where it turns uncomfortable.
19 April, 10 pm – Schaubühne Lindenfels – € 6,5 (5,5 red.)
Trailer
