Sirogra_Waiting for the Barbarians_2019
6.9
It's quite satisfactory, which means nothing new. Why does the servant need to say that the blind woman is very upset? The part to buy a horse is enough, everyone sees it, and the lack of a word is evidence of her resistance to the so-called "civilized" order. Like Lacan’s words, “Facts are neither true nor false, but verbal.” The barbarian is first such a term. Only silence is resistance, because this is not within the image system of modern civilization. All the efforts of the old sheriff are to make her speak, "tell me the truth." This is the same thing the colonel did, which is to get that particular tone from these savages. How to get it? Apply pressure first, and then apply pressure after you get a lie.
Civilization’s reaping of barbarism began with an arrogant attitude towards their bodies. The colonel used hammers, sticks, knives, forks, ropes and wire, and the sheriff relied on washing her feet, washing her hair, and touching her wounds. They are all materialized, but unfortunately this kind of presentation only reaches the body. At the same time, there are no signs of abstract and conceptual reflection in the film. The sheriff has an admiration for the body of the blind woman. Later, the fierce debate on the execution of the "barbarian" was also because of the hammer. When leaving the prison, he asked afterwards. The problem of eating, obviously treating them as "people" is a passive skill that is triggered under certain conditions; the reason for the army to leave the border is not sufficient. It only allows us to see the officer whose brain was hollowed out. This is also just a physical stimulus. .
One of Coetzee's views is that the judge itself carries original sin, or that the act of trial itself is original sin. The colonel is the judge. He calls the barbarians criminals and the sheriff a traitor. His sins can be seen in the image; the sheriff is also the judge. He discusses the ownership of the pig at the beginning and who should be hanged at the end. Although his sins are shallower, there are hints. The strange thing is that the "barbarians" are no different in this respect: they seem to have no language to express arrogance, but they also judged whether he should live or die when the sheriff sent the blind girl back home. In the eyes of these people, how could these monsters from more developed societies be human. Who can become the ruler and who can have the words depends on where luck comes. The so-called "civilized man" is actually barbaric, and the "barbaric" is still barbaric. We have not left the jungle yet.
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