For every German or Romanian officer and civilian official 200 Bolsheviks, and for every German or Romanian soldier 100 Bolsheviks. All the communists in Odessa will be taken hostage, which, if repeated such acts, will be shot together with their families
First Screening. Klassiki. Kino Room. And now a reading from the book of Stephen Miller:
"We are now at the moment in time most favorable to ethnic liberation, national revision and the purification of our nation from all those elements alien to her soul, which have grown like weeds, darkening her future. In order that this unique moment not be lost, we must be implacable. I beg you, be implacable. Saccharine and vaporous humanitarianism have no place here. At the risk of being misunderstood by some traditionalists who may still be among you, I am for the forced migration of the entire Jewish element from Bessarabia and Bukovina, which must be thrown over the border. I also favor the forced migration of the Ukrainian element, which has nothing to seek here at this time. . . . You must be merciless… I do not know when, after how many centuries, the Romanian nation will again enjoy this total freedom of action, with the possibility for ethnic purification and national revision. This is the hour when we are masters on our territory. Let it be used! I do not care if we go down in history as barbarians. . . . There are no other favorable moments in our history. If need be, shoot with machine guns, and I say that there is no law. . . . I take full legal responsibility and I tell you, there is no law!”
Or, as Donald J. Trump says "Just shoot them."
Godard did a film in the 60's called "La Chinoise" or "The Chinese" espousing Communist ideology in a frankly disgusting way using bad arguments in poorly written dialogue while millions of innocent Chinese people were dying at the hands of Mao. It's this type of bravado, conveying your message through the medium of film, that is possibly the hardest to pull off. Most of the time you just look like you are masturbating. The pretentiousness of the left, and the incomprehensible incompetence of the right in the create of message art underline who absolutely difficult it is to convey an entire thought process through this audio-visual medium. '...Barbarians' uses several different tools to succeed where others fails.
1-The topic isn't 'Nationalism' but rather the takedown of Nationalism. So instead of being the proponent of an idea, the message is an anti-idea.
Populism as a movement has never survived the originating country due to the specific circumstances in which it was raised. Italian Fascism didn't spread to Germany or Spain. Those growths were native, and most didn't survive the war. Spanish Fascism, you could say, dind't survive Franco. In this way, the AfD might take control of Germany much like Putin's RP took over Russia, but it will lead to a failed state like the Russia you see today, and Belorussia, Turmenistan, etc. Populism never arose in China, in which the extreme minority took over the destiny of millions.
So it is the anti-argument, not the argument, which Radu is fronting here, and as such holds more water.
2-The set up of a director fighting to stage a historically accurate re-enactment is similar to, say 8 1/2 and S1m0ne in using the construction of an audio-visual art to stage a dialogue of why exactly someone would be against it. 8 1/2 is about money stopping the production. 'Simone' is about how those brakes are removed when the opposite becomes realized. In fact, Taransky can't stop that train if he tried. And he did. Jacob's director, the determined Marina, isn't proselytizing at all in her advocating. She only uses facts as defense: never to bludgeon, only to explain. This is what we in the education universe used to call "teaching."
3- Radu shows us Marina nude, in pop dresses, having stupid conversations with no meaning, and ultimately trying to manage personal crises while juggling such an explosive issue as facing the worst crime in Romanian history on the front steps of the capitol building in Bucharest. This is a hard, tricky subject and it needs a soft, witty protagonist who can't be pushed around and who isn't above discussion or compromise. Marina is up to listen to anything anyone has to say. In every conversation, she wins... not necessarily because she is right, but because her debate partner isn't up to the task of taking her on. Why, might you ask? Well, in one conversation with extras, she corners a man who doesn't want to participate because it shows the Jews in too good a light. I mean, they didn't deserve to be wiped out, he's arguing, but come on... I mean they were asking for it.... It's that type of argument.
4-Radu doesn't pull punches. When Marina lies and stages the re-enactment as-is, some extras walk off. Some people in the crowd cheer the massacre of the Jews (as re-enacted), and her producer applauds her boldness though he was one of the moneybags trying to stop it.
The United States is riddled with this type of bullshit, which Radu is exemplifying through Marina's experience. If ten thousand Native Americans staged a reenactment of Wounded Knee on the steps of the Capitol building, who do you think would complain? If you said the racists, you would be right. These are the same fucking people who didn't want a Holocaust Memorial in Washington, who didn't want a Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, who didn't want a museum of African American History. Tino Chrupalla, the co-leader of the "Alternative for Germany (AfD)" political party, said he wanted to demolish the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe which sits in downtown Berlin, almost on top of what was Hitler's Bunker. He said the crimes of the Third Reich was a 'blip' on two thousand years of beautiful German history.
Hey asshole, that 'blip' was 68 million people, and not all of them were Jews. Go fuck yourself.
So watching Marina in this film was kind of like watching myself from the outside having these insane discussions with people about common facts. I once commented on why we couldn't trust Fox News after the Dominion lawsuit broke up the Fox Corp so they could pay Dominion off. Someone I respected told me there was a new lawsuit filed because, as it turns out, Dominion was actually skewing the election for Trump. I blinked. The conversation kind of went like this:
"I just googled it. I couldn't find the lawsuit."
"Well they haven't filed it yet."
"Well how are they going to get around Rupert Murdock saying in depositions they deliberately lied because they wanted to cater to their veiwer and were afraid to lose them to Newsmax and One News?"
"Well, that really doesn't matter if the machines are actually tampered with."
"So you're saying Murdoch lied on the stand and lost his entire legacy? Why would he do that?"
"I don't know."
"Who's filing the lawsuit? Murdoch? The GOP? I'd like to read a news article about that."
"I don't know where I read it,"
This is how Nationalists operate, and Radu is specifically mimicking that behavior here, in scene after scene, as Marina is constantly bombarded with people who either do not want to admit that their country, Romania, actively participated in the Holocaust, or know it full well, and are fine with it because they are racists but are seemingly uninterested in outing themselves as racists. This contradictory behavior is coming at at end. It's why the American Nazi Party is supporting the Palestinian State and it's why politicians are voting to restore the statues of Confederate traitors.
There is some legwork by the viewer. You're not sure why they start off in a museum and you're unsure what the goal is as we approach the second act. But the motivation is clear for Marina, as it is clear for her detractors. I've often read Holocaust history in the bathtub. I've had arguments with Neo Nazis about census numbers and immigration. I've often ogled Lugers and Mausers with a curious eye.
So what Radu's doing with Marina... yeah, I get that.