*They're already here

Written by J.M. Coetzee, adapted from his novel
Directed by Ciro Guerra
Starring Mark Rylance, Johnny Depp and Robert Pattinson
Running time: 1 hour and 52 minutes

by Anthony Glassman

Most 80-year old Nobel laureates would be satisfied with their decades of acclaim, collecting royalty checks and making life hell for their nurses. Apparently, however, that is not enough for J.M. Coetzee, the South African-born author of 17 novels, both fictional and autobiographical, and two collections of short stories.

No, thinks Coetzee, he is going to write the screenplay for the fourth adaptation of one of his novels, the first time he has done so himself instead of allowing another writer to adapt his work. It's the 40-year old Waiting for the Barbarians, a stark and sand-strewn tale of the corruption and paranoia of colonialism and a stark warning of the depredations of imperialism.

Mark Rylance plays the magistrate of an outpost on the frontier of an unnamed empire, standing in for so many colonial powers that trying to logically whittle it down to one is a fruitless enterprise. It is a dusty, arid place in the middle of a desert, filled with people doing their best to feed themselves and their families, dealing from time to time with the nomadic natives of the region, who mostly keep to themselves.

He keeps himself busy by engaging in a bit of amateur archaeology, digging up and cataloging remnants of past civilizations found in nearby ruins – coins, bits of wood with writing on them, metal boxes and other artifacts. There is little crime at the outpost, so the hobby keeps his mind busy.

This quiet, quaintly pastoral world is shaken by the arrival of Colonel Joll (Johnny Depp), a menacing figure representing the Imperial Police, who serve as much as the military as they do lawkeepers. Joll and his superiors are convinced that the nomads, or barbarians as they insist on referring to them, are far from benign; they are, in fact, preparing for war against the empire, which cannot be allowed.

He “interrogates” two nomads who are imprisoned in the outpost, and one would not be amiss in reading those quotation marks as indicating that the form the interrogations take is that of murderous torture. Coerced confessions in hand, Joll returns to his superiors to make his report.

The magistrate then meets a beggar, a nomad woman who was tortured, blinded and had both of her feet broken by Joll and his men. He takes her in and cares for her, eventually going on an expedition to return her to her people. However, when he gets back to the outpost, the malevolent Officer Mandel (Robert Pattinson) is waiting for him with accusations of dereliction of duty and treason. The magistrate, by dealing with the nomads as people and not as barbarous foes, must certainly be a traitor to the Empire.

Colonel Joll and an expeditionary force go off to drive the barbarians back from the Empire's frontiers, proving that there is no enemy so deadly as the one we make for ourselves, and the arrogance of empires is often their undoing.

Director Ciro Guerra has created a stark, engaging film. Pattinson's character barely has enough to do to judge the actor's chops, but Depp has given an unusually subdued performance and reminded us that he can act when given the chance, not just sit around chewing on scenery like a bored horse in a wooden stall. He also does a fantastic job of illustrating the quietness of evil. One need not scream and shout and run around with a swirl of cape to be a villain; sometimes the villain speaks calmly, rationally and makes perfect sense to those around him, which is why his evil is so dangerous.

Rylance's magistrate is quiet as well, damned by his own passivity. The pain he shows is real and convincing, a solid performance by the journeyman actor.

Waiting for the Barbarians will be released by the Samuel Goldwyn Company digitally and on demand on August 7.