Romania has selected “I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians” (“Îmi este indiferent dac? în istorie vom intra ca barbari“), directed by Radu Jude, for best foreign-language film Oscar consideration.
Named after the words that sanctioned a brutal large-scale massacre on Europe’s Eastern Front in 1941, an event that some historians later signposted as a precursor to the Holocaust, “I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians” offers a commentary on the events of World War II with a setting in the present.
“Its juicy, verbose sprawl incorporates archive newsreel footage, extended literary quotations and hefty chunks of critical theory, plus a lead actor [Ioana Iacob] who breaks the fourth wall to introduce herself and her character,” The Hollywood Reporter wrote in its review.
The film had its world premiere in the main competition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival and won the main prize, Cristal Globe, and the non-statutory Europa Cinemas Label Award for best European film.
“I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians” was co-produced by Romania, the Czech Republic, France, Bulgaria and Germany.
The pic is Romania’s 34th submission to the best foreign-language film Oscar race. Only once has a Romanian film been nominated: in 2013, for Cristian Mungiu’s Beyond the Hills. A Romanian movie has never won an Academy Award.
