Waiting for the Barbarians (2019)

Directed by: Ciro Guerra | 112 minutes | drama | Actors: Mark Rylance, Johnny Depp, Robert Pattinson, Gana Bayarsaikhan, Greta Scacchi, David Dencik, Sam Reid, Harry Melling, Bill Milner, Isabella Nefar

‘Waiting for The Barbarians’ (Ciro Guerra, 2019) follows the conduct of a magistrate in the service of a large and powerful empire. Somewhere on the border he holds sway over a small settlement. The magistrate has things well under control, including sporadic contacts with barbarians at the border. This status quo changes, however, when Colonel Joll comes in for an inspection and believes barbarians want to attack the Empire. But who are the barbarians anyway?

‘Waiting for the Barbarians’ is a book adaptation of the novel of the same name by James Maxwell Coetzee and has attracted some big Hollywood names. For example, Johnny Depp and Robert Pattinson play the ruthless and smartly dressed, respectively, Colonel Joll and Officer Mandel. In the name of the empire they have to keep things in line at the border. Opposite them is British stage manager Sir Mark Rylance who plays the magistrate. Although he may be best known to movie audiences for creditable supporting roles in, for example, ‘Bridge of Spies’ (Steven Spielberg, 2015) and ‘Dunkirk’ (Christopher Nolan, 2017), Rylance has little trouble carrying the film. In ‘Waiting for the Barbarians’ he switches with ease between wise father figure and existential doubter.

Rylance’s playing comes out better than that of his Hollywood colleagues, because both Depp’s and Pattinson’s characters are rather thin, almost caricatured. Beyond the idea that these army officers are ultimate exponents of an empire built on a strong sense of superiority and dogmatic rationalism, the viewer hardly gets to know the characters of Depp and Pattinson.

The caricature of some characters seems to be the result of a scenario that focuses more on ideas about colonialism than on human interaction. It is therefore striking that the Nobel Prize winning writer JM Coetzee wrote a film script for the first time based on his own novel. This is as if Ernest Hemingway wrote the script for ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’. When it comes to pointed dialogues and word density, it is also a must. Too bad that some dialogues come across as wooden. However, this may also have been the intention. As the film progresses, it becomes clear that blind faith in language and rationalism, as in the novel, is accompanied by serious consequences. Incidentally, Coetzee is therefore not so much interested in whether or not there will be a war between the empire and the barbarians, but rather what the social and cultural dynamics are between the two.

The director Giro Guarra previously delivered penetrating work in the art house circuit with the “Heart of Darkness”-esque ‘El abrazo de la serpiente’ (2015) and ‘Pájaros de verano’ (2018), the Colombian Godfather with a surreal undertone. His collaboration with Coetzee has yielded a significantly less surrealistic result, nevertheless ‘Waiting for the Barbarians’ certainly fits into Guarra’s oeuvre. After all, his previous films also partly aimed at colonialism. Moreover, as with his previous works, the director has found beautiful and appropriate filming locations for the story. The locations in Morocco mainly enhance the sense of historical realism in the film, as they exude an authentic atmosphere and clearly show traces of colonization.

Furthermore, ‘Waiting for the Barbarians’ is strongly reminiscent of ‘The Desert of Tartars’ (Valerio Zurlini, 1976). The latter film follows the fortunes of a group of soldiers waiting for an attack from Tartars. Coetzee has frankly admitted that he was inspired by the novel behind ‘The Desert of Tartars’. You can also make an interesting Dutch comparison, namely with the book adaptation of ‘Max Havelaar’ (Fons Rademakers, 1976). This story is also about a magistrate who doubts his calling, but with a slightly different outcome. Nevertheless, in both stories the magistrates seem to be not so much the solution but actually part of a bigger problem.

Ultimately, ‘Waiting for the Barbarians’ appeals more to the head than to the heart. Although the film tries, it doesn’t grab the viewer emotionally by the throat. Unfortunately, some of the dialogues are too forced and important characters too one-dimensional in the film for that.