Ciro Guerra is a newly emergent arthouse favorite, easily the most prominent Colombian director after the success of "The Embrace of the Serpent" and "Birds of Passage." He's worked on shows for Netflix and Amazon Prime, and toyed with Hollywood projects. His English language debut, "Waiting for the Barbarians," features a handful of very recognizable actors, but otherwise follows his usual themes and aesthetics - namely an unsparing examination of the effects of western colonialism on indigenous peoples.
This time out, however, Guerra is far from Colombia and the cultures that he's featured in the past. Instead, he's adapting J.M. Coetzee's novel "Waiting for the Barbarians," which is about unnamed groups of oppressors and natives. Guerra's adaptation was filmed in Morocco, and uses a mix of different ethnicities and locales, with clear visual allusions to various real world actors. Taking place two or three centuries ago, the story features a Magistrate (Mark Rylance), who heads a remote outpost somewhere in Central Asia, at the edge of the desert. He owes allegiance to a vast, unseen Empire, but has been largely left alone to govern his little corner of the world as he sees fit, and has achieved a peaceful coexistence with the native populations. This includes the Asiatic Nomads, who populate the desert and largely keep to themselves.
The peace is disrupted by the arrival of the sinister Colonel Joll (Johnny Depp), who immediately starts accusing the Nomads of crimes, capturing and torturing them, and becomes obsessed with the idea of an impending "barbarian" uprising. War is expected, and more soldiers are brought in to prepare. The Magistrate, a good and gentle man, takes pity on one of Joll's victims, an unnamed girl (Gana Bayarsaikhan) who has been crippled and blinded. He nurses her back to health and falls in love with her. However, at her request he takes her back to the Nomads, bringing the wrath of Joll on himself, and sparking further resistance. Among Joll's underlings are soldiers played by Robert Pattinson, Harry Melling, and Sam Reid.
I doubt that "Waiting for the Barbarians" would be getting much attention at all, if it weren't for the likes of Depp and Pattinson playing the vicious antagonists. It's a curious film, with an epic sweep and an approach toward European colonialism that is very reminiscent of Werner Herzog's cinematic adventures in foreign lands from the '70s and '80s. But for all of Guerra's efforts to evoke the era of the misguided Imperial conquerors, so much of the story and circumstances are clearly invented, specifically the Magistrate himself. He's a wildly unlikely creature - a sensitive, morally forthright, romantically inclined middle-aged man who is put in sharp contrast with the cruel, rapacious newcomers who supplant his authority, and are clearly the true "barbarians" of the title.
So, we have to treat "Waiting for the Barbarians" as an allegorical story, about a good man espousing the ideals of the wrong era, struggling to stay good and protect his neighbors in the face of encroaching systemic evil. And, despite some pacing issues, the film does a decent job of relaying this idea. Rylance's performance as the Magistrate is very strong, the cinematography is gorgeous, and Guerra uses instances of violence and abuse very effectively. I also appreciate the complicated relationship between the Magistrate and the girl, which is very one-sided and fraught with ambiguities. Even when he has the best of intentions, and behaves honorably, he still inadvertently harms her.
Where I think the film runs into some trouble is with the agents of the Empire, who are almost cartoonish in their villainy. Frankly, it's distracting to have recognizable Hollywood stars playing the agents of oppression. Johnny Depp, who I love in many films, sticks out like a sore thumb here. Pattinson less so, though he only shows up in the third act and really doesn't have much to do. They're all dressed like French Foreign Legionnaires and speak English, and it's all frankly a little too dehumanized and weird. The soldiers' totally unscrupulous mistreatment of the locals, and pillaging of the landscape, however, ring all too true.
I'm looking forward to more from Ciro Guerra, though I'd prefer if he stayed as far away from Hollywood as humanly possible.
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