Îmi este indiferent daca în istorie vom intra ca barbari

Radu Jude's "Îmi este indiferent daca în istorie vom intra ca barbari" ("I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians" in English) does two things at once. The most important is that it looks at a shameful instance in Romania's history: the army's massacre of Jews in Bessarabia, even before the Nazis arrived (one of the Nazi officials even complained that the Romanian army was simply going ahead and killing Jews!).

But the other issue addressed is how Romania has treated this in years since. Romania, like the rest of Europe, wants to simply think that it was a victim of the Nazis; in reality - as in most of Europe's other countries - plenty of its citizens were delighted to help the Nazis.

The protagonist is a woman making a movie about the 1941 Odessa Massacre carried out by the Romanian army, with the title referring to a quote from Foreign Minister Mihai Antonescu. During the movie's production, a number of people start revealing their unwillingness to acknowledge the country's history. As someone notes, it's comforting to be the good guy.

It's not a masterpiece, but it still calls into question how much anyone is willing to recognize the bad parts of their own country's history. As John Quincy Adams once said, the historian must have no country (and the one character does even note the US's sordid history).

I wat lch a lot of movie from all countries and all genres, but this is the most boring piece of ... I ever saw. It shows an actress/ director doing research. She reeds a couple of minutes from a book, watches a youtubefilm, walks through a museum and lays naked in bed with her boyfriend. That was the first 45 minutes...

The photography was amaturistic and ugly, the discussions between the cast irritating and a mess.

Avoid, avoid, avoid!

An incredible movie about the difficulties of every nation to face its ghosts and to assume its history and eventually its identity.

Mariana wants to direct a street show for the public depicting Romania's hand in the genocide of Romanian Jews during WWII. Her mentor and backer questions whether it is necessary, and maybe play up the heroics of the Romanian army in the war. That is the gist of the movie with the enormously long title.

The question is, why such a controversial theme? The Holocaust as illustrated in this picture will not play well here in a city with the largest Jewish population in the country. There is no question the Romanians have mastered the art of filmmaking; in fact, Lincoln Center hosted a Romanian Film Festival a few years ago. Noteworthy in this picture is an interesting back-and-forth between the two principals as they argue the philosophical and ethical pros and cons of the show, with some interesting historical references. As always, the actors are very natural and their competence is a feature of Romanian films.

It is worth your time and the ending packs an unexpected punch. It is not for everybody but it is the type of superior filmmaking you can expect in Romanian films.

7/10 - Website no longer prints my star rating.

Boring, vapid, annoying, I left after the first hour. Poor and tangled dialogues, useless nudity. There is a scene where an old black and white picture, with hanged people, it's shown for more then a minute !!! The same picture, one minute !! WTF ? Or another scene where you can see a closeup with a guy's penis for about a minute!! Why ?? Dont go to this movie !