I DO NOT CARE IF WE GO DOWN IN HISTORY AS BARBARIANS

The young director Mariana Marin stages a re-enactment of Romania’s entanglements in the Holocaust under the fascist General Antonescu during the Second World War. The public performance steadily morphs into a farce: the spectators are confronted with the dark sides of Romanian history and it becomes exceedingly clear that anti-Semitism is no mere shadow of the past. Graced with a virtuoso’s light touch, Radu Jude’s film on the origins and realisation of this novel re-staging weaves the fictional with the documentary, creating a rousing work of hybrid form.