59%User score 59 percent
The Secrets We Keep
2020 · Thriller · History
User Score
399 votes
At an isolated frontier outpost, a colonial magistrate suffers a crisis of conscience when an army colonel arrives looking to interrogate the locals about an impending uprising, using cruel tactics that horrify the magistrate.
Recommendations based on this film
Louisa Moore - Screen Zealots
August 31, 2020
Adapted by Nobel Prize winning author J.M. Coetzee from his own book, “Waiting for the Barbarians” is a timely screen retelling of the darkest (and most the most cruel) aspects of colonialism. This period film sadly reflects issues many are dealing with in present day: a society that’s relentless in its quest to oppress “the other.” An isolated frontier settlement on the border of an unnamed empire sets the stage for…
Read the full review on TMDBtmdb28039023
August 25, 2022
In Waiting for the Barbarians' Colonel Joll, Johnny Depp has crafted a great movie villain. I would describe him as either a colonial Darth Vader or a proto-Nazi – and concerning the latter, the character is a textbook illustration of Hannah Arendt's 'banality of evil;' perfectly circumspect, not a single hair out of place, not a single wasted motion. Depp plays the Colonel inwardly; his eyes invariably covered by ro…
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CinemaSerf
February 26, 2023
Despite a strong cast, this is really rather a dirge of a watch. Sir Mark Rylance is the colonial magistrate in a frontier province that inspecting "Col. Joll" (Johnny Depp) believes is about to bear the brunt of an attack from the eponymous enemy. Despite there only appearing to be sheep farmers adjacent to their fortified town, he proceeds to indulge in a little torture before heading off to investigate some more.…
Read the full review on TMDBReviews are written by the TMDB community, not by Waiting for the Barbarians's publisher.
