Waiting for the Barbarians Ending Explained, the Plot, Summary, and More
by A Maria
Updated Mar 07, 2023
Waiting for the Barbarians
In 2019, Ciro Guerra made his English-language directorial debut with the drama film "Waiting for the Barbarians," which is an adaptation of J. M. Coetzee's 1980 novel of the same title. The movie features an ensemble cast that includes Mark Rylance, Johnny Depp, Robert Pattinson, Gana Bayarsaikhan, and Greta Scacchi. The film first premiered at the Venice Film Festival on September 6, 2019, and was later released by Samuel Goldwyn Films on August 7, 2020. Despite having a notable cast and source material, the film received mixed reviews from critics.
Waiting for the Barbarians Ending explained
After being absent for three months, two soldiers from Joll's expedition return. The townsfolk assume this means the barbarians have been defeated and they excitedly rush to greet the returning soldiers. However, they realize with horror that one of the soldiers has been crucified and the dead soldier is actually a message of defeat. Panic breaks out, and Mandel and his soldiers leave the townsfolk behind, taking all their supplies of food, livestock, and bread. The magistrate then steps back up as the town's leader, and he tries to organize the fields and crops resourcefully, hoping it will be enough for the people to survive winter. As the first snow falls, the magistrate is awoken in the middle of the night by Joll's carriage. He learns that the Empire has disbanded and each man, Joll included, now fights for his own survival. The novel ends with the magistrate as the town's leader as they brace themselves for a harsh winter, quietly anticipating an attack from the barbarians.
Source: course hero
Waiting for the Barbarians analysis
The arrival of Colonel Joll initiates the plot of Waiting for the Barbarians, where an unnamed magistrate living in a remote outpost of the Empire is visited by Joll. Joll represents the Empire and is tasked with investigating the rumors of an impending barbarian attack against the Empire. Joll brings in two barbarian men for questioning, and the older man dies while the younger man falsely admits to knowing of an impending barbarian uprising under torture. The magistrate later discovers that the old man died as a result of Joll's torture. After Joll returns with nomadic prisoners, whom he plans to question about barbarian activity, the magistrate becomes interested in one of the female prisoners, whom he invites to move in with him. He eventually decides to return the barbarian girl to her nomadic family in the desert but is arrested upon his return. Mandel, a violent and sadistic officer, is put in charge of the magistrate's case and subjects him to cruel beatings and solitary confinement. The torture culminates when Mandel pretends to hang the magistrate but does not place the rope high enough, leaving him terribly injured and humiliated. The magistrate skulks around town like a dog, begging for food and surviving off of small kindnesses. Meanwhile, fears of an impending barbarian invasion grow, and the guards become arrogant and disrespectful to the townsfolk. The magistrate becomes the town's leader and tries to arrange the fields and crops resourcefully as the first snow falls. The novel ends with the magistrate learning that the Empire has disbanded and each man, Joll included, now fights for his own survival.
Source: course hero
Waiting for the Barbarians summary chapter 1
The central figure of the novel is an anonymous civil servant who serves as a magistrate in a frontier settlement owned by an unspecified empire. This empire is in conflict with the "barbarians," a group of nomads who inhabit the wild lands on the border of the empire. The magistrate hopes for a peaceful retirement, spending his free time searching for ruins in the desert and interpreting pieces of pottery. However, his life is disrupted when Colonel Joll arrives at his fort to investigate rumors of an impending barbarian attack.
Joll uses brutal torture tactics that force his victims to give false information, which disturbs the magistrate greatly. One young barbarian girl, whose father died during Joll's interrogation, becomes central to the magistrate's life when he takes her in as a maid and cooks. However, their relationship turns sexual and complicated, and eventually, the magistrate decides to return the girl to her people. He embarks on a dangerous journey into the desert with two soldiers and returns successfully, but is falsely accused of consorting with the barbarians and imprisoned.
Despite demanding a trial, the magistrate is tortured and starved, until Mandel, the new officer who replaced him, sets him free. The magistrate becomes a beggar and eventually regains the trust of the village people. Meanwhile, Joll's military campaign fails, and the soldiers who remain at the frontier settlement abuse their authority. Mandel and most of the soldiers return to the capital, and the magistrate regains his position.
The novel ends with the magistrate struggling to write the history of the settlement, unable to reconcile the horror of Joll's investigation with the beauty of the settlement's life. The magistrate sees the settlement's existence as bound up in the cyclical time of the changing seasons, beyond the day-to-day historical events.
Source: litcharts
About Waiting for the Barbarians
SPECIFICATIONS
DETAILS
Directed by
Ciro Guerra
Screenplay by
J. M. Coetzee
Based on
Waiting for the Barbarians
by J. M. Coetzee
Produced by
Starring
Cinematography
Chris Menges
Edited by
Jacopo Quadri
Music by
Giampiero Ambrosi
Production
companies
Distributed by
Samuel Goldwyn Films (United States)
Iervolino Entertainment (Italy)
Release dates
September 6, 2019
Countries
Languages
English
Mongolian
Waiting for the Barbarians movie ending explained - FAQs
"Waiting for the Barbarians" is a drama film directed by Ciro Guerra and based on the 1980 novel of the same name by J. M. Coetzee.
The film features an ensemble cast that includes Mark Rylance, Johnny Depp, Robert Pattinson, Gana Bayarsaikhan, and Greta Scacchi.
The film first premiered at the Venice Film Festival on September 6, 2019, and was later released by Samuel Goldwyn Films on August 7, 2020.
Despite having a notable cast and source material, the film received mixed reviews from critics.
This may depend on who you ask, but some viewers and critics have noted that the film takes some liberties with the source material and diverges from the book in certain ways.