Waiting for the Barbarians2020
Waiting for the Barbarians (2020)
TOMATOMETER
AUDIENCE SCORE
Critic Consensus: Admirable in theory but disappointing in execution, Waiting for the Barbarians struggles to turn strong performances and worthy themes into affecting drama.
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Cast
as The Magistrate
as Colonel Holl
as Officer Mandel
as The Girl
as Mai
as The Clerk
as The Lieutenant
Critic Reviews for Waiting for the Barbarians
All Critics (91) | Top Critics (21) | Fresh (49) | Rotten (42) | DVD (1)
There's not much here for even the most ardent fan of overdetermined political fables.

Its declarations are too easy, its conclusions too neat.
The screenplay is written by J.M. Coetzee, adapting his own 1980 novel with a strikingly free hand but the message left intact - the eternal awful irony of which Them should really fear which Us.

It's a mixed bag, but worth seeing... The main reason to see it is for Mark Rylance's performance.
The heavy-handed allegory, with Johnny Depp as a ruthless government agent, relies too much on abuse and would-be Big Ideas.
This is proficient, measured filmmaking from a director who has already peered more deeply, and persuasively, into colonialism's heart of darkness.
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