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).
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).