Waiting for the Barbarians

Waiting for the Barbarians is set in a small town on the frontier of a vast, unnamed empire, where a longtime magistrate keeps a quiet, orderly life. Word arrives that nomadic peoples the settlers call barbarians may be preparing an attack, and Colonel Joll of the imperial political police comes from the capital to investigate. His interrogations are brutal, and the magistrate, who had looked forward to a peaceful retirement, finds his conscience stirred. When a young woman who has been mistreated is left in the town, he takes her in, and his doubts about the empire and his own position within it grow into an act of defiance.

The film is an adaptation of J. M. Coetzee's novel Waiting for the Barbarians. Ciro Guerra directed and wrote the screenplay; it follows his Embrace of the Serpent and Birds of Passage, his third feature as director. Mark Rylance plays the magistrate, with Johnny Depp as Colonel Joll, Robert Pattinson as Officer Mandel, Gana Bayarsaikhan as the girl, Greta Scacchi as Mai and David Dencik as the clerk. It runs 112 minutes and was released in July 2020.

Reception was middling. On IMDb it holds 6 out of 10 from around 16,000 votes, and on TMDB 5.9 out of 10 from roughly 400 votes. A critics' rating of 6.1 out of 10 from 95 reviews places it close to the audience scores, suggesting broad agreement rather than sharp division.