The population is now free,
after a quarter of a century of Red Terror.
They rejoice openly.
People in Odessa and all over the Bolshevik reign
were cut off from the outside world.
Now they hear war news from the Romanian Radio Society.
Above Odessa, the brave soldiers of the Cross
raise the Romanian flag for which they fought.
It waves in honour of Romanian victory.
"I DO NOT CARE IF WE GO DOWN IN HISTORY AS BARBARIANS".
...some writers were watching a boxing match on TV.
One of the boxers KOs the other with a solid punch.
Then one writer shouts:
"That's the Critique of Pure Reason!"
Hello.
I am actress Ioana Iacob, playing Mariana Marin.
Not the poet, unfortunately.
Both me and my character are Romanian ethnics,
baptised as Christian Orthodox.
Unlike me, Mariana is an atheist.
I will be playing alongside Alexandru Dabija, Alex Bogdan,
Ilinca Manolache, Șerban Pavlu -
The seniors are here.
- The oldies. - OK.
Speaking of Ilinca.
Enjoy the film!
Not that way.
Hello, Madam.
Thank you for coming.
So you're interested in our project?
It's a chance to make some money.
I've done things at the Seniors Club.
- Me too! - Marathon, karaoke, poetry recitations.
I didn't like the karaoke.
- There will be work to do. - I'm no stranger to work.
- The boss' word is law. - Oh, a kind of Führerprinzip!
So, show me how you'd run.
As if someone set you on fire.
Run trying to put out the flames.
- He's a good runner. - Please.
Help, it burns my heart!
Mr. Lupu!
Let's not mock this.
Who's mocking what, Miss Pinocchio?
You were.
- Is that how a man on fire runs? - How else?
You show us!
- But I'm no actress. - Me neither.
Mrs. Racoviță, please try -
No, I want something else.
Pretend to cry for mercy.
"Don't kill me" etc.
I've done plenty of crying in this life.
Have mercy, I'm begging you!
Don't kill this poor old lady!
Excellent!
We need some life, some authenticity.
Like Ceaușescu's wife at the trial.
"No, you can't tie me up, my children!"
Did you miss me, Sara?
...he's so irresponsible. But I'll manage.
A father shouldn't say that.
How are you?
Working. These Austrians are terrible.
Germany's dumb cousins.
How's your work going?
Slow, but I have some ideas.
I'll manage.
I'll hang up, I need to read something.
- Show it to me. - What, my cunt?
Yes!
Seriously, Dacian.
- No one will see. - Stop it, I'm tired.
What are you reading?
Isaac Babel.
This was during the Polish-Soviet war.
The Commander has reported Novograd-Volynsk was taken.
- Can you hear me? - Yes.
Our transport is strung like a noisy rearguard
along the high road from Brest to Warsaw
built on the bones of muzhiks by Nicholas I.
Fields of poppies flower around us,
the wind is playing in the rye,
the virginal buckwheat rises like the wall of a distant monastery.
The quiet Volyn river is curving,
withdrawing into a mist of birch groves,
entangling itself in thickets of hops.
An orange sun is rolling across the sky like a severed head,
a gentle radiance glows in the clouds,
the standards of the sunset float above our heads.
There is the odour of yesterday's blood and slain horses.
The Zbrucz river roars in foamy knots in the rapids.
The bridges are destroyed, we ford the river.
A majestic moon lies on the waves.
The sonorous currents ooze between hundreds of horses' legs.
Someone drowns, defaming Virgin Mary.
The river is littered with the black rectangles of carts,
above the serpents of the moon and the shining chasms.
Late at night we arrive in Novograd.
In the house to which I'm assigned I find a pregnant woman and two Jews.
A third is asleep, covered up, against the wall.
In my room - ransacked wardrobes, scraps of women's fur coats,
human excrement and shards of sacred vessels.
"Clear up," I say to the woman.
"What a dirty life you live!"
The two Jews get up.
On felt soles, they clear the detritus,
monkey-like, like Japanese in a circus.
Their necks swell and revolve.
They spread a torn feather mattress for me.
I lie next to the third, sleeping Jew.
A timid poverty descends over my bed.
All has been killed by silence.
Only the moon, clasping her head in blue hands,
loiters beneath my window.
I rub my numb feet and fall asleep.
I dream of the Commander,
pursuing the Kombrig on a heavy stallion.
He shoots two bullets into his eyes.
The bullets go through; his eyes fall to the ground.
"Why did you turn the brigade about?" the Commander shouts.
I wake up: the pregnant woman is tapping me on the face.
"You are shouting and thrashing in your sleep," she says.
"I'll move your bed, you're kicking my daddy."
She raises her thin legs and uncovers the sleeping man.
The old man is lying on his back, dead.
His throat is ripped out, his face hacked in two,
blood clings in his beard.
"Panie," the Jewess says, "the Poles killed him."
"He begged them: Kill me out in the backyard,"
"so my daughter won't see me die."
"But they did what suited them."
"He died in this room, thinking of me."
"And now tell me," the woman said with terrible force,
"where in all the world you would find a father like mine."
That's it.
Beautiful.
Russians. The Suedes' poor cousins.
Bye then.
Where did these come from?
An American film, Zombies vs. Wehrmacht.
- Are they authentic? - Yes.
We can add accessories.
An Iron Cross, a gas mask...
A Linnemann shovel.
- And swastikas? - Not all uniforms had them.
The SS had them.
- Maybe. - Please check.
- It all has to be authentic. - Of course.
- Where can I change? - Shoo, you Venus in Furs!
The Schutzstaffel...
Now hold out an arm.
Shout "Heil Hitler! Sieg Heil!"
Not funny at all.
- Just joking. - Bad timing.
Any Russian or Romanian uniforms?
Sergiu Nicolaescu left us hundreds of Romanian uniforms.
- A bit old, though. - I see.
And they may be shitty fakes.
Oh no, Mr. Sergiu would never...
We can fix them up.
The Russian ones we have to make from scratch.
- Weren't they supposed to be duds? - You mean blanks.
That, yes.
I want the weapons to be frightening.
If it was just us, we could have used training ammo.
But you want civilians as extras.
- Drop them. - No way.
The brass band marched on, The lead drummer at the front
Was slender and mustachioed...
These will do. As long as they look real.
- Horrible! - They're only frightening to girls.
Around 1877, they wrapped gunpowder in paper.
Like candy.
To load your weapon, you had to tear the wrapping -
Can I try this?
- tear the wrapping, load up and shoot.
So, to not be sent to the infantry,
Romanian peasants pulled out all their teeth.
With pincers.
So they couldn't tear the gunpowder wrapper.
They couldn't be in the front-line infantry.
- Cowards. - Not all of them.
Mostly the rookies.
Some innocents died in this, in the 1989 Revolution.
The officers mistaken for terrorists.
- Really? - Yes.
Sorry.
Look, bullet holes!
A soldier beheaded an officer and put his head here.
Someone stuck a cigarette in his mouth.
Is the museum allowed to show it? People died in it.
It's not the only one. That's from WWI.
And tanks from WWII.
Items from the 1989 Revolution.
- We can rehearse here. - Good.
Sissies, let's rehearse!
You're a good imitator, can you do Marshal Antonescu?
- Now what? - I don't know.
We have 25 minutes for the whole event.
Stylised, compressed, theatrical.
- Sorry, it's suffocating. - Two metres back!
You wear a knapsack, like Wittgenstein.
- What? - The philosopher.
He was in WWI. He even volunteered.
He wore his knapsack for the rest of his life.
- What army? - He was Austrian.
So the German - well, Austro-Hungarian army.
Our boys must have smashed him!
- Made him crawl! - And suck cock!
I always carry my advance command post.
Let's study the battle map.
Let's split them up. Romanians, Russians, Germans.
OK. Line up!
He could be that general who dies in the blast.
I don't give a fuck, as long as I'm not a Bolshevik.
Barbu's motto is:
"I was born screaming, covered in someone's blood,"
"I don't mind dying the same way."
Right?
Bugger off!
Sweet.
You'll be Alexianu, Transnistria's Governor.
No, Baldy here should be Alexianu. You'll be Antonescu.
We serve our fatherland!
Who wants to be German?
- How many Nazis? - About a quarter.
About 15, then.
OK, do the Nazi salute. Heil!
Karl Marx.
Final assault!
Russians, hands up! Romanians and Germans, act happy!
And repeat.
- One hand or both? - One!
- What do you think? - It's OK, but...
- I can't picture it all together. - It's all calculated.
I can't picture the pyrotechnics, the videomapping...
Don't worry.
Shouldn't we shout "Heil Hitler"?
- During the attack? - At the end, victoriously.
Maybe.
Dragoș!
- Shout "Heil Hitler". - I can't, sorry.
- It doesn't make you a Nazi. - But I get laryngitis if I shout.
What do you get if you lick pussy?
- I'll do it, Madam. - Don't Madam me.
- I'm Mariana. - Manole.
Romanians, shout "Long live Marshal Antonescu!"
He only became a Marshal after Odessa.
No, after he took Bessarabia.
Long live Marshal Antonescu!
Get back, let's do it again!
"Dirty Communist Jews and traders..."
Traitors!
"...leave Bessarabia and N. Bukovina!"
- Too long. - It's what the banner said.
"The war was caused by dirty Jews. Fight the warmongers!"
- Good, it's short. - This one's OK.
The hanged in Odessa.
If you project that on the building,
the resolution might be poor, look at the pixels.
I see. It will show, right?
- Can we get a better scan? - We'll see what we can find.
"Communists and dirty Jews robbed you."
"The Romanian and German armies come to give it all back."
- Too long. - Yes.
"Dirty Jews and foreigners, perish before the sun of Justice!"
- That works. - It would fit.
It's more impressive.
With that "sun of Justice". It's more ludicrous.
Good.
What?
They're showing that film in praise of Marshal Antonescu.
- What film? - The Mirror.
Antonescu's hagiography.
The Mirror?
- Isn't that Tarkovsky's? - No.
It's directed by our Sergiu Nicolaescu.
Hitler told me about total war.
A fight not of armies, but of peoples.
He spoke of total victory, an oath of violence.
I was horrified.
Information shows that you agreed
to deport Romanian Jews to the East.
Inexact!
I deported no Romanian Jew.
Only those our troops found in Bessarabia and Bukovina.
90% of them didn't know a word of Romanian.
Most were brought to replace the Romanians
deported by Stalin to Siberia.
Defendant Ion Antonescu, you have your last word.
If I have time for a political will, it will read:
Oh?
Romanians!
I am proud of my nation, born of noble Romans and Dacians.
I fought two wars for your glory.
I gladly go to meet your martyrs a little sooner.
They all fought for your justice.
Some collaborators turned their backs on me.
I shall not turn my back on their mistakes.
I leave the country all that was good in my rule.
I take upon me the bad, except for murder.
Which you leave to us.
If I had won, my statues would have risen all over Romania.
I demand the death sentence!
That is all.
But before ending,
like Scipio Africanus, the Roman general,
I say to all Romanians:
You, ungrateful people, will not even have my ashes!
Let's have another drink.
Imagine that in Germany.
Films on TV paying homage to Hitler.
- When was the film made? - In '93 - '94.
- Sinister! - Sheesh!
- It's funny. - In a way.
Why did he call it The Mirror?
Maybe the Marshal is the mirror of the nation.
Marshal Pétain! Vive la France et les colonies!
Jean Ancel, The History of the Holocaust in Romania.
Simon Geissbühler, Bloody July.
The Iași Pogrom. I thought the Germans ran the death trains there.
Germans and Romanians both.
The trains were manoeuvred and guarded by Romanians only.
Most were moved around in trains until they died,
of suffocation or thirst.
Thousands of people.
In June '41, Hitler wasn't yet killing Jews en masse.
Goebbels' journal quotes Hitler:
"In these matters, a man like Antonescu"
"acts far more extremely than we have."
What next? Hitler was born in our country?
You know the "my country" joke? "My cunt re-ally doesn't give a fuck."
- I'm sick of all the Jews whining. - What?
You can laugh at Jesus and Mother Theresa,
but you can't even purse your lips at Jews.
Have you ever seen a debate about this in Romania?
You're obsessed with the Romanian pogroms.
What we Romanians did is too sinister to understand.
- I can't understand! - What's to understand?
All of Europe was anti-Semitic. So we became European.
We imitated them.
- We were pretty mild. - We have our share.
Our troops killed Jews on the Eastern front.
Happily joined by Romanian and Ukrainian civilians.
Codename Clearing the Land.
- They killed their Jewish neighbours? - It seems so.
Romanians raped them too - the Nazis were too Aryan for it.
Communists were no better.
Of course, but it annoys me that this works like negationism.
Comparative trivialisation.
Meaning?
If you talk about Romanian Holocaust and anti-Semitism,
people get outraged:
"Communism was worse! Stalin this, Mao that..."
What's this, a massacre contest?
Funny how everyone says:
"The USSR-imposed Communism was the worst."
"Innocents killed, nationalisation, no freedom of expression" etc.
But we had given them up willingly.
Murder?
It was fine when the Legionnaires and Antonescu did it.
Theft?
The Jews lost all they had and no one opposed.
And freedom of expression - forget about it!
- But they were Jews. - That's the only difference.
Don't freak out, but...
- Go. - My period is late.
- Uh-oh. - Maybe it's nothing.
Sometimes it comes a few days late.
- Then why tell me? - For the sake of conversation.
- Get a pregnancy test. - I will.
- I wouldn't force you into anything. - That's not it.
- Just do it. - I will, lay off it.
I'm anxious. If it's my baby...
I'm not fucking anyone else, so drop it.
I didn't mean it, sorry.
It's late, I'm off.
It sucks that you never stay over.
I have an early flight to Timișoara.
I wish I could believe you.
Whichever way...
- Keep me updated. - Sure, a software update!
It's all about you anyway, right?
You being worried and whatnot.
- Do you ever think of me? - I do!
That's why I said to do the test. Otherwise it's pointless talk.
- You're a selfish monster. - And you're a monstrum eruditionis.
Bugger off!
Out!
Hi.
- Hi! - Hello, Miss.
Come closer, we won't bite!
- What's this? - Boney M.
Too many to the left.
Decebal, get on this side.
No, you'll ruin the opening setup.
Our reenactments always worked out great.
- Ask Traian, we - - I understand.
But I'm the director, you have to keep with my vision.
Whether you like it or not.
This isn't a battle.
It's the blowing-up of the Romanian headquarters,
Odessa, October 1941.
We can't afford the risk of confusions.
Are we collaborators or slaves?
What's gotten into you?
You collaborate with me as actors.
According to my stage direction.
- That's not slavery. - We're no actors.
In this situation, you are.
Just not professionals.
The extras, too.
You're all actors to me. Even the brass band.
If you don't like it, leave and take the consequences.
I will! Besides, this isn't directing.
Now you're teaching me?
- Yes! - Cut it out!
Reenactments mean extreme realism!
Extraordinary!
This isn't a military reenactment.
I'm making a show using reenactment.
Subversively!
And don't make me laugh!
Wow, extreme realism!
War is death. I haven't seen you dying.
- It wasn't - - Let me finish!
What do you reenact? Weapons, uniforms?
You think that's realism?
You want the essence of war, show me death, mutilation!
You're like those idiots on TV
impersonating Hemingway with his beard and drinking,
but not his writing!
Or him blowing his brains off!
- The stuff that defines Hemingway! - Or Elvis!
The map isn't the territory!
All this is very anti-Romanian.
- Shut it, negationist! - Fuck off!
It's not anti-Romanian. It's facing our own history.
We'll do it her way. We'll get more projects.
We won't! Not even the National Day parade!
Yes we will.
Wittgenstein says speaking about propositions p and non-p
is the same as speaking of proposition p.
It will turn out fine.
That's why we wanted a director.
I didn't say I was out, bro!
But she should stop fucking with us! And watch her Mick Jagger mouth!
I'm sorry.
- I'm quitting. - Why?
- Can we still read Nae Ionescu? - Read Mein Kampf for all I care!
Watch it, this street bears the name of a hero!
Sometimes I get too angry.
Check this.
Cool.
- We'll need firefighters. - Can't help it.
The things we do to please you! Like puppies.
Show some dignity.
Sorry for earlier.
Don't worry. You should see our fights.
Thank you.
You know why Napoleon went to war?
They say he took red for green and viceversa.
The bloodier the fields, the greener he saw them.
Too stupid!
A historian wrote it.
After all, why couldn't it be true?
Mr. Movilă, my respects!
If Mohammed won't come to the mountain...
- Even in the rain! - Hello, Sir.
Just making sure you don't do some ISIS beheading stuff.
Let me introduce you.
- Constantin Movilă. - Mariana.
- Mariana who? - Marin.
The poet?
You're standing in the rain?
- Not so roughly. - Of course, Miss.
Weren't the brownies in Transnistria?
Hey sweet tits, wanna see my Marshal?
You could choose another military event.
Or another period.
Dacians and Romans are in this year.
Do something about the Dacians!
About how they taught Romans Greek philosophy.
Stoicism, beekeeping...
I'm joking, Miss. I'm not a Daco-freak.
I want to discuss a controversial subject.
To make people question their preconceptions.
Many still think Romania fought against Nazi Germany.
- And didn't it? - After being its ally for 3 years.
Many think Romania had no Holocaust and deported no Roma.
They learn history from heroic books and films.
This is a political and educative endeavour.
Political? Do something on Communist prisons.
They're political and too little discussed.
We must educate youth.
Yes, but I'm doing something else.
We can do something on Communism next.
I'm interested.
It's fine if you discuss Communist crimes.
Do you know why?
When we think of Communist crimes, we think we're the victims.
Not the guilty party, not the executioners.
But with the 380.000 Jews killed by Romanians,
we're with the perpetrators, not the victims.
We are the executioners.
We? Who did we kill?
I'll turn myself in!
Brethren, tie me up! Free Barabas!
I meant our responsibility is...
- Collective. - No, symbolic.
- If we are our luminaries - Enescu... - Eliade, Cioran, Boldur the Swordbeast!
If we stake a claim on their success and genius,
why not on the massacres?
380.000 precisely?
- Isn't it a bit much? - Yes!
Maybe you miscounted them? Or counted them twice?
Mr. Movilă, please.
Raul Hilberg said it:
after Nazi Germany, we killed the most Jews.
We always come in second.
But I believe you.
Everything in my show is also confirmed by the Wiesel Report.
Elie Wiesel? More grief than talent.
And that report has a foreword from three Romanian Presidents.
- Their function depended on it. - They ratify it.
Willy-nilly, since we were preparing to join the EU.
There were 18.500 victims in Odessa only.
- Exaggerations. - No.
Maybe including the deportees.
A Romanian general confirmed it at the trial.
Numbers are unimportant anyway.
Of course.
2.000, or 100, would be just as bad.
By the way. How many make a massacre?
10 is too little.
100?
- Mariana, Mr. Basarab wants to quit. - Give me a minute!
All my facts are triple-checked.
I read all of Jean Ancel's works,
Raul Hilberg, Dennis Deletant, Romanian historians...
The facts in the show are true.
They appear in the minutes of Antonescu's Council of Ministers.
They thought they'd win the war.
Everything in the show can be proven to be true.
You say "true"... What is truth?
Just what Pilate said when Jesus told him
"I am the way, the truth, and the life."
Maybe he was just as annoyed as you.
I wouldn't know, I'm a Taoist.
It's in the Gospel of John.
Whatever...
I was being more subtle.
Truth deals in propositions, not in objects.
What is "true" in this ridiculous reenactment?
Nothing.
Since you know the subject, do something on the Crucifixion.
Romanians love Church stuff, so City Hall would approve.
The Bible thumpers would bring a lot of audience.
A bit retrograde and old, but an audience nonetheless.
I don't enjoy your irony.
I won't lecture you on the philosophy of history.
Nor on historic truth or the coherence theory of truth.
That would be beside the point.
Do I detect irony in you, Miss Saul Kripke?
- Aggression, too? - No!
You treat me like an idiot.
Argument from authority, referencing books...
I'll raise you Rorty and Thomas Kuhn.
Gică Hagi, too. How's that?
This is no argument from authority.
I was saying I didn't make it all up.
I'm of a theoretical nature. But I wasn't mocking you.
I'm of a theoretical nature too, we match.
But don't bring up philosophy.
All I'm saying is you weren't there.
You don't know how things stood in the war,
on the Eastern front.
And more pragmatically, Miss:
It may harm the children in the audience.
- Why? - Children get scared.
City Hall will get complaints.
Our account is stylised, theatrical.
And why would the representation of violence make children violent?
Is this an exam?
It's such a cliché - "Violent shows make children violent."
I agree. They grow soft on Xboxes and crisps.
While others starve to death.
But historians, you know...
Something is "historical" because hundreds of historians say so.
Though they all copied the same historian,
this one.
That's up to you to prove.
We're complicating things.
The very idea of military reenactment
is only to pay homage to fallen heroes.
- Your project submission said so. - That's what we're doing.
No, you're not.
It's supposed to be about the soldiers.
Fair fights, military honour, decorations,
"our heroic struggle", all the trimmings.
You've included civilians.
Don't their innocent deaths deserve at least a mention?
Yes, of course.
Go write a book. A small one.
Or a little play. Not a massive public event.
It's out of line and in poor taste, Miss.
So your issue is aesthetics?
- Now you seek beauty? - Toujours.
Dear cultural pundits, come blow my trumpet!
I approved the project to support artists.
- We've had such arguments... - And you got scared?
The thing is: I'm not narrow-minded.
But why shoot ourselves in the foot?
Just don't do anything scandalous.
Let's do something nice to please the rabble.
To get applause at the end.
Not to outrage people on taxpayers' money.
As for educating them...
That's an illusion.
A comical illusion.
It must be comfy, being one of the good guys.
Meaning?
Sitting on the sofa,
denouncing the Odessa massacre?
Will this raise any dead?
How brave, throwing shit at past generations!
- That's not the point. - What, then?
Oh, "never again"!
Nunca más!, as South Americans say.
But you stop one massacre, and the next one appears.
It's like Laurel and Hardy and the communicating vessels.
While you denounce the 1941 Odessa massacre,
thousands are dying right now.
Syria, Boko Haram, ISIS...
Won't you denounce those?
I was thinking of a mysterious Darwinism of massacres.
- Please, this is - - Listen.
Darwinism, yes!
Only the fittest massacres survive in the collective consciousness.
Ever heard of the German massacre against the Herero, in 1904?
No. It was forgotten.
Like so many others.
But Odessa, now that's a massacre!
- Gold medal in the Massacre Olympics! - No, it's quite anaemic.
- Will this stop further massacres? - Of course not.
But I think reflection is important.
At least we Romanians could stop being so full of ourselves.
Right. In times of peace.
If things go south and these toys start running,
like this Skoda, all your political art will vanish.
Didn't the others commit massacres?
In Dresden? Not to mention Hiroshima.
Yes, but I see no connection.
But there is one, Miss.
If Papa Adolf had won the war,
you'd have done reenactments in a soap dish.
Or they'd have been about the bombing of Dresden or Hiroshima.
Nagasaki would have been forgotten, being the second.
Nobody wrote Nagasaki, mon amour.
If they had, we'd have pissed our pants laughing.
I'll just ask this:
drop the part about the civilians!
While I'm still asking.
Don't make me use a forceful solution.
I almost said "the Final Solution".
Threats are not OK.
Want me to publicly accuse you of censorship?
- You're threatening me. - No.
Just saying what I'd do for my project.
I understood your idiosyncrasies.
Nothing scary for children. I promise.
After all, it's popular theatre.
The hard stuff will be more gentle than I'd wish, OK?
Thank you. That's all I wanted.
That we strike a deal.
- How about a coffee? - I'm a bit busy.
We can talk massacres.
It's cool, like horror films.
I can tell you about the one at the end of the Ming dynasty.
25 million dead, Miss, not your 4 cannon and one Skoda.
So?
Maybe after the show.
May I have your number, then?
Of course.
0745...
Seriously?
342...
531.
The big numbers were the best.
I'd rather we didn't talk massacres, though.
Anything you want.
Like haikus. Want to hear one?
Sure.
"Light the fire, I will show you something pretty:"
"A big snowball."
The syllable count is all wrong.
I'm off, we're busy. Goodbye.
"Tu n'as rien vu à Odessa!"
Who else was with you?
Prof. Rarincescu...
- Who's the wanker? - Alexianu, Governor of Transnistria in '41.
The local butcher.
I was not involved.
I was not in Odessa. I found out two days later.
- When did the massacre take place? - On October 23rd and 24th.
In October you were already Governor.
Odessa was not -
Rewind, please.
- So this is from '45? - No, the trial was in '46.
Here.
I was not involved.
I was not in Odessa. I found out two days later.
- When did the massacre take place? - On October 23rd and 24th.
So nonchalant!
...you were already Governor.
Odessa was not -
But you governed all of Transnistria.
Odessa was not yet under our civil administration.
What inquiries did you make after the fact?
- None. - Why?
I reported it to the Marshal, as the records show.
He said "what happened in Odessa happened..."
The Marshal claims he wasn't informed until 1943.
- No. In the first Council of Ministers - - November 13th, 1941.
Yes.
- What measures were taken? - None.
- What's that one? - A Mauser C96.
Maschinengewehr 131.
Do the Russian ones sound different?
What?
- Do those sound different? - Like Tchaikovsky and Wagner.
You need a sound montage.
The expressive frequencies have to fill that big space.
Yes, but I'd like weapons from that time.
But we need expressiveness too.
Any other sounds? Like yells?
- Such as? - Like a crowd getting butchered.
Begging for mercy, groaning...
I have separate bits...
Sorry.
You naughty boy.
Dracula.
- What's that? - A Reinhard Wiener filmed it.
Somewhere in Lithuania, also '41.
- You want to use it? - I thought of it.
I could add sounds, but it's not about Romanians nor Odessa.
- Anything with Romanians? - No, I searched everywhere.
There may be something in the Russian archives.
It's mentioned in the Marshal's trial.
Impressive, but I don't think it's OK to use it.
True.
I'll just use photos from Odessa.
- In an interview to Günther Gaus - - Grass.
... in 1964, Hannah Arendt described her reaction
upon learning the truth about the camps:
"Before, we said: One has enemies. That is natural."
"But this was different. As if an abyss had opened."
"This ought not to have happened."
"It's not the number of victims, it's the method,"
"the fabrication of corpses - I don't need to go into that."
"This should not have happened."
"We cannot reconcile ourselves with it."
"None of us ever can."
Every sentence is charged with a meaning so awful
that the speaker has to resort to phrases
halfway between euphemisms and the unprecedented.
First, the curious, repeated expression
"This should not have happened."
It appears to have at least a resentful tone,
surprising from the author of the most demystifying book on evil.
The impression grows with the final words:
"We cannot reconcile ourselves with it. None of us ever can."
(Resentment, Nietzsche said, is born from the will's impossibility
to accept that something happened,
to reconcile itself to time's "so it was.")
Arendt identifies what should not have happened
and nevertheless happened.
It is so appalling that, having named it,
she acts as if reluctant or ashamed:
("I don't need to go into that", "the fabrication of corpses.")
Extermination as fabrication by "conveyor belt" (am laufenden Band)
was first named so by a physician of the SS, F. Entress.
It has been repeated countless times, often out of context.
That only applies to Germany, though.
This industrial thing.
Sometimes, in that dazed state right after sleep,
I try to imagine death in a gas chamber.
Or by gunshot. Or by hanging, or burning alive.
What do you feel then?
What do you think about when the flames start burning you?
Maybe it's a stupid thought.
It's the same as any death.
Although...
A simple death is easier to imagine.
Of old age. Dying in your sleep...
- Are you sleeping? - No.
Hands behind your head!
Get moving!
Go back!
Hey, kids.
Hold your hands halfway up.
Like in that photo from the Warsaw ghetto.
"Suffer little children, to come unto me!"
See, kiddies, like this.
- Can you try? - Yes.
- You're not doing it right. - Yes I am!
Hey, that's up to me.
You're awesome! We'll collect our pensions from you!
Cipher telegram no. 563 for General Macici.
Marshal Antonescu orders retaliation by the execution
of all Bessarabian Jews in Odessa -
Might we interrupt, Ms. Ceaușescu?
Please. How are you taking the heat?
- Not too good. - We're almost done.
We understand your idea, but...
We spoke with some of the civilians...
Some of us aren't pleased.
- You brought in Gypsies. - So?
You mixed us dirt- I mean Jews with the crows.
They were part of the Holocaust. Victims of the Antonescian policy.
I can't leave them out.
And they're only here symbolically, playing Jews.
Yes, but...
Didn't whites play blacks in The Birth of a Nation?
Well...
I'm not too good with history, I'm from a small village.
And you don't know a thing about the Romanian peasant.
We won't mingle with Gypsies!
That's stupid. It's racism.
You do realise you're being racist.
We have nothing against them. My best friend was a Gypsy.
But we'd prefer it if they were separated.
Make a scene just with them. It will be clearer, too.
Please respect my vision and stay within your limits.
There are others who don't like this.
...artists, writers and musicians came patriotically.
They brought solace and good spirits to the wounded.
Poor buggers.
Hard to imagine them committing atrocities.
I agree.
At least some. I doubt they killed anyone.
You think the authors of the massacres look any different?
- Some have that savage look. - Bullshit.
I don't think so either. Except for psychotics.
Hitler had fanaticism in his eyes.
Particularly when he roared.
- Kiss my swastika. - Heil Hitler!
Hitler's eyes, maybe. But not Eichmann's or Antonescu's.
I think Antonescu was just an idiot, not a fanatic.
Nothing shows in the eyes.
It's like that schoolboy theory
about recognising virgins by the look of their cunt in jeans.
- I know that one. - Show us.
The one on the left is definitely a beast.
No way! And what do looks prove?
That some are more evil.
This guy?
- A beast indeed. - He is!
Lombrosianism is long dead.
Not true! Political correctness makes us say that.
- That one looks cute. - The murderer?
- Why is he a murderer? - Look at his face!
Goebbels! Spear!
Speer, the architect, you moron!
That bandaged head is a complete turn-off.
I'd rather die alone.
Maybe he's a good fuck, with that stump.
He does look stupid. Idiots can kill without hating.
Just technically.
The country wants you either healthy or dead.
That gets you laurels, unlike being mutilated.
Drinking again, uncle Vanya?
Ever seen a monument for mutilated heroes?
Yes.
The Mighty Stump!
Those guys look so gay.
What if one of them was your great-grandfather?
- Could be. - Descendants of murderers.
- Guilt is individual, not inherited. - I agree.
Maria has incestuous thoughts about her great-grandfather!
Hot? No way, look at them.
Scrawny riffraff.
You'd have liked some SA stormtroopers.
She's embarrassed!
I wouldn't say no.
Really, would you?
The German troops were handsome, elegant...
Not like these poor bastards.
Still, a gang-bang...
Zehntausend Mann!
It should be consensual.
As if they'd ask!
All armies rape.
To kill time. Like the Reds in Berlin.
They stormed the housewives and their honeypots.
Forget Goethe, Heidegger, all that cultural marmalade!
Happy birthday!
Now you're stalking me?
We said we'd talk.
- But if you're busy... - Talk about?
We'll talk after I get the show out.
Be patient.
- Please! - Wait a minute.
My situation is -
Things at home are fragile.
I can't afford this chaos.
There's no chaos, Mr. Cumulonimbus.
I haven't decided yet.
Well, I have.
I don't want this baby. I can't destroy my family.
Why destroy it?
I'd raise it on my own, honey.
Its birth should be a joint decision.
Wrong. Read the law.
This is about law, not morals. No, the other way around.
Long story short: I haven't decided.
But if you don't want to acknowledge it, I'll manage.
I won't tell anyone it's yours.
- Weren't you a feminist, pro-abortion? - So?
- So abort it! - That's up to me.
Just think of my feeling of guilt!
We both have time to think.
Let's each mind our own business.
You idiot, you-
"You idiot"?
- Sorry. - Go home.
To your lovely Aryan kids.
- My apologies. - Stick them up your ass!
I'm sorry.
- Forgive me! - I hope your Pitot tubes get clogged!
Fucking bastard!
Do we quote Mihai Antonescu, July 8th 1941?
- What? - Mawashi geri!
The quote for the show.
Show no mercy!
Who knows when we will get freedom of action again
for ethnic cleansing and national reform.
Use machineguns if needed.
I do not care if we go down in history as barbarians.
The Roman Empire committed -
Shit!
I forgot about it.
- So you are epileptic? - Yes.
- Isn't this risky for you? - No.
"Gentlemen, an Inspector-General is coming!"
How are the preparations going?
An American general in the Gulf War said:
If everything goes well...
...you're in an ambush.
- I just want a word. - Now?
If possible. And in private.
Alright.
You know what I saw on one of your boys?
A Hugo Boss T-shirt!
- So? - You have to ask?
Who made the SS uniforms?
The ones women swooned for?
Hugo Boss, Miss!
- "Let Eminescu be our judge!" - "A lyrical summation of voivodes!"
The plan was for someone from City Hall to hold a speech.
Fine, but no more than 5 minutes.
No, 3-4 at most.
I've explained that this is a rather delicate reenactment.
- Again with that? - No.
I supported you, they understood.
The only sensitive part is...
We really need to drop it.
It's not in the tradition of reenactments.
It's just your poetic license.
Hundreds of thousands of Jews deported and killed by Romanian troops
are not poetic license.
I'm referring to style. Besides, opinions differ.
They say only the Germans exterminated Jews in the East.
The Einsatzgruppe D. Not Romanians!
Read up!
The Germans had to hold back the Romanians,
who executed Antonescu's orders too quickly.
Eichmann himself was angry. Ohlendorf reported that
incompetent Romanians killed Jews faster than they could bury them.
Hannah Arendt says Romania was Europe's most anti-Semitic country.
With fierce competition.
Mrs. Hannah Palyndrome exaggerates.
My show will only contain the idea.
Reality was far more gruesome, impossible to represent.
Thousands were shot, hanged, burnt alive, blown up.
Imagine bunches of 3-4 people hanged on this bar.
Machineguns were red-hot from firing.
You've done your reading.
So you've also read about soldiers who disobeyed orders
and fired into the air or defected.
True. Others cried and prayed, but still killed.
I'm not describing the exceptions.
Spielberg made Schindler's List. About a German saving Jews.
And he's swimming in Oscars.
How about the Mayor of Chernowitz, who saved so many Jews?
- I don't care about Spielberg. - But the Oscars...
He can make his Jurassic Park 5.
If I did that, I'd change the meaning of the show.
In his diary, Mihail Sebastian says
Romanian troops on the Eastern front could kill all the Jews they wanted.
Even an officer's chauffeur told him
he had killed a few, just like that.
The exceptions are very few, even the Americans said so.
Americans? A bunch of criminals.
Vietnam, the natives, South American dictatorships...
I agree, I hate American policies.
But I won't back down.
Miss, I've had enough of playing the Holy Censor.
Let's reach a compromise.
Show Jews escorted to camps by Romanian troops.
And nothing else.
The rest we can imagine, let's be subtle.
No way!
People can get their atrocities from the Internet.
It's full of ISIS murders.
We don't have the right to be subtle.
Mariana, the first tank is here. Hello.
- Hello. - I'll be back.
Nice tattoos, Miss.
Can we move it around?
- Can we? - We risk tearing the pavement.
- You want it moving? - Yes.
What if it crushes someone?
Fine, we'll leave it here.
Really? Who brought in a black dummy?
Put it away.
There weren't any Falasha or Beta Israel in Odessa.
In short:
I can call off the event.
I'll go to the press. ActiveWatch, human rights NGOs...
- You really want that? - No!
But I'll go all the way for my projects.
Lucian Pintilie wanted to set himself on fire when he was censored.
I'll fight to the death for this.
Company, charge! Raise the nunca más flag!
Are you like this in private, too?
I wasn't born to be loved, I accept that.
So you accept that the event is cancelled.
You won't compromise, end of discussion.
I accept compromise, not censorship.
Fortunately, this isn't the '50s, and you're not a dictator.
Oh well.
The event is cancelled.
I'll move the Boss to the History Museum.
The Gold Thesaurus doesn't bother anyone.
Ancient Gepids are safe.
I'll go to the press. It might turn ugly.
Let's rehearse, the contract is still on.
With our money!
Dear cultural pundits!
Now what, boys?
What's going on?
Even the participants here are angry.
I'm only here for the money.
I quit anyway.
You could have quit earlier, you fascist.
Better late than never.
It doesn't matter, Miss. It's all cancelled.
Let's talk.
And someone - the gentleman with Steinhardt?
Mr. Laiotă, please!
Tell the lady what you told me.
The writer Steinhardt was a Jew, but not a sly Jew.
He praises Marshal Antonescu.
I know, but Steinhardt isn't relevant.
He didn't want to bother the Church.
Which should be called:
the Romanian Orthodox Anti-Semitic- Antonescian-Ceaușescian-Homophobic Church.
That's all it is.
And Steinhardt got his information from Antonescu's henchmen.
Much as we like him, he's not credible.
He knew for a fact Antonescu refused Uncle Hitler's extermination programme.
He only asked for money and labour.
- The only one in Europe! - A saint!
He's painted on a church wall!
He wouldn't kill a chicken!
He resisted, he and the Danes, and the Bulgarians.
He's famous for not wanting to kill a single Jew.
Your naïveté would be touching if it didn't make my skin crawl.
It was the manipulated naïves who committed those crimes.
Your Steinhardt also says stupidity is a great sin.
- You're free to leave. - I'm staying.
Antonescu did save the Jews.
It's OK, boss, we're not all negationists.
The Jews in Wallachia weren't deported, the King said so!
Saying Antonescu saved the Romanian Jews
is like saying a man who shoots 5 people out of 10
saved the other 5, because he could have shot them.
Disgusting.
You like math?
Instead of playing Leni Riefenstahl,
you could have gotten the Fields Medal in mathematics.
Maybe she likes geometry. The triangle...
Say what?
Say it again, old pig, and you're screwed!
That's one fierce woman!
Here's my two cents. But don't hit me.
I can convince my boys and let the idiots go.
We'll rehearse just the escorting,
but tomorrow we do the whole thing.
- Like Viennese Actionism? - Except homegrown.
Good idea.
We've reached an agreement.
We'll just do the battle.
As for the Final Solution on the Eastern front,
if I may call it so, we'll just show the escorting.
- No massacre? - No shooting or burning Jews alive.
We arrest and escort them.
- I want to see. - In a moment.
Rehearsal!
- Are they the fascists? - Yes.
Miss!
I found a little Hitlerjugend for you!
Ms. Mariana Marin will tell us about Odessa.
Good day, Miss.
To the left!
- Good evening. - Hello.
She is our Deputy Mayor.
- Pleased to meet you. - No less.
- Less is fine too. - I said "no less".
- Meaning just as much. - I was joking.
I understand this is about the Eastern front.
Interesting and unusual.
I hope you like it.
I showed Mrs. Deputy Mayor the Gettysburg Battle reenactment.
They love their history, short as it is.
Compared to our 2.000 years.
Short? If you consider the American natives...
That's nothing.
- A coke, or a burger? - I'd like that.
Have a seat.
- All good? - Yes.
- Hope for the best. - I'm getting the jitters.
Chill, go have a soda.
Or some popcorn.
Fuck you!
We Romanians have never led wars of conquest.
We've only defended "our poverty, our hardships, our kind",
in the words of Mihail Eminescu.
Some wars are just.
Let us remember the suffering of soldiers
who fought and died for their country,
so that we can have soda and icecream, watch a show
and raise our children in peace.
There is a cure for the deepest wounds.
It is love.
Enjoy the evening. Love and be loved!
THE BIRTH OF A NATION
Fuck you, Russians!
The drum beats, godspeed, brave Romanians! The knapsack on our back, the weapons ready!
Sunny or cloudy, rainy or snowy, We march merrily!
The drum beats, godspeed, brave Romanians! God is our brother, we carry Him in our hearts!
Let the flag shine, for it we live, Let the country flourish, for the Cross we die!
The drum beats, godspeed, brave Romanians! We march together, hurray!
Let the flag shine, for it we live, Let the country flourish, for it we die!
Halt!
Fall in!
Prayer attention!
Never forget you serve the Romanian nation.
Dirty Jews must be crushed!
It's our forebears who command us.
Our national poet, Mihai Eminescu, said:
Under our country's sun They teach Jewish to our sons,
Dirty Jews crush our pride, How long shall we abide?
Our great author loan Slavici wrote about dirty Jews:
All we must do is close the borders,
and drown them all in the Danube.
Let's extinguish their race!
True!
Dr. Paulescu asks us all -
Hey, young ones, who is Dr. Paulescu?
The insulin guy!
Yes, bravo! He invented insulin!
But foreigners won't admit it, fucking pieces of shit!
And Dr. Paulescu says:
Couldn't we exterminate them like cockroaches?
It would be the easiest way to get rid of them.
And the Patriarch of our Holy Church teaches us:
To not react against Jews is to doom ourselves.
Defence is our patriotic duty, not anti-Semitism!
God bless the Romanian army!
Resume!
For salute, present arms!
- Good evening! - Good evening, Marshal!
Soldiers, I order:
Cross the Prut river!
Crush the enemy to the East and North!
Break the Bolshevik chains and free our brothers!
Give back to our country the ancient lands
of our proud Bessarabia and Bukovina!
You will fight shoulder to shoulder and soul to soul
with the world's most glorious army.
Show your bravery to your fellow fighters!
They fight on Moldovan land for our borders and world justice.
Be worthy of your role in History,
of the Third Reich Army and its mighty Leader Adolf Hitler!
Vivat!
Left face!
By the centre, double time!
Over the Prut the war has started, Romanians cross it strong-hearted,
Weapons in hand, to take back again The lands that were stolen from them.
To the Bessarabian plain we go,
Where love and rich crops grow!
Company, halt!
Order arms!
Go!
Letter to the President of the Council of Ministers.
Inform the Minister of the Interior: releasing the Jews was a mistake.
Rich or poor, they are extremely dangerous.
They undermine our economy and most of all our morale.
Those returned from Bessarabia are growing cheeky.
Our soldiers are at deadly risk because of Jewish Commissars,
who diabolically push the Russians at gunpoint
to die to the last man.
I am revolted. Remedy the situation!
Round up all Jews back in camps!
Preferably in Bessarabia, from which I will push them into Transnistria,
as soon as current concerns allow.
Let everyone know we fight not the Slavs, but the Jews!
To the death!
If we win, the world will be purified. If they win, we will be their slaves.
In Tiraspol, Jews were carried in Roman litters.
Our Bessarabians were their slaves.
Sparing them in our country is a potentially fatal weakness.
In the cellars of their Secret Police, piles of bodies were found.
They are mostly wretched Bessarabians who for the past 20 years
fought more for themselves than for Romania.
God punished them beyond measure.
The same awaits us if we do not win!
To win, we must remain firm. This beast cannot be tamed!
The whole war, particularly the fights in Odessa,
have proven that Satan is the Jew!
He alone drives the Slavs like cattle to die with their last bullet!
This causes us enormous losses.
Without Jews, we will get Odessa!
Faster!
Victory!
Long live Marshal Antonescu!
Cipher telegram no. 563 to Gen. Macici:
Marshal Antonescu orders retaliation by:
1. The execution of all Bessarabian Jews in Odessa.
2. Everyone included in Order 3161 of October 23rd 1941
and not yet executed, as well as any connected individuals,
will be put in a building which will be detonated.
This will be done on the day we bury our dead.
3. This order will be destroyed after reading.
Hands behind your head!
Everybody, down!
Give me this fucking shit!
Take my money, please!
I'll shoot you in the head, you fucking scum!
- Catch them! - They're running away!
Catch the dirty Jews!
Get back here, piece of shit!
Get down, scum!
THE RULE OF DIRTY JEWS AND FOREIGNERS IS OVER
Get up!
- But at the rehearsal - - Now we're doing it like this.
Shut up and do what he says.
- What's this? - The Jews being escorted.
- Gianina, hi! - Sorry, I just got here.
What happened to the Jews in Odessa happened.
From now on I want order.
- Was the repression severe enough? - Yes, Marshal.
Are you sure?
You are merciful with others, but not with our Romanians.
It was very severe, Marshal.
I said to shoot 200 Jews for each of our dead
and 100 Jews for each injured man. Was it done?
They were shot and hanged in the streets of Odessa, Marshal.
Good. I am responsible before History.
Let the American Jews call me to account.
Jews must be shown no mercy. If they could, they'd crush us.
Me, you, them.
I am convinced that, if no Romanian kills me, no one will.
That's why I won't spare them.
Don't think they won't take revenge.
But before they can take revenge, I'll finish them off!
I do this not for myself, but for our Nation!
Antonescu was a murderer!
Bravo!
I was so scared they'd stop us.
Didn't it burn beautifully?
- Want to go for a drink? - Sure.
It was horrible, they applauded when the Jews burned.
- Not all. - Most of them.
They weren't paying attention, or didn't understand.
Fucking idiots.
But such complete lack of empathy...
It scared me.
Dosoftei pushed me, the little shit.
- He didn't mean to. - Right.
They could be more careful!
- I'll come with you to the hospital. - No need, thank you.
Get well soon!
- Thank you so much. - If I knew, I wouldn't have come!
- Not for a million dollars! - I'm sorry!
I'll call you and come visit at the hospital.
Nunca más!
Never again, plus jamais ça, nie wieder...
How do they say it in Arabic? Probably "Death to Christians!"
- It was great, congratulations! - Really?
I like little acts of artistic naughtiness.
- I thought you'd mind. - I did.
But that's the charm of a well-behaved girl.
- Is it? - Definitely!
I have something for you.
A gift!
Told you: Namibia, 1904, the massacre of the Herero.
Maybe you can stage a show on it, in the Gipsy slums here.
- Thank you. - Quite welcome.
A glass of good wine?
I can't today.
- Tomorrow? - Alright.
- Then I'll be out of town. - On holiday?
- No, work. - More massacres?
Dorohoi, Stânca Roznovanu...
Sétif, 1945 - the French, too... Massacre, massacre!
- No, a play. - Oh?
After a short story by Chekhov.
- Which one? - In the Ravine. At OH MY.
- Oh my! - It's the OH MY theatre.
I'll read it and call you tomorrow, alright?
Yes.
- Have a nice evening. - You too.
It was awesome!
Ioana, come here.