Romania’s complicity in the slaughter of Jews during World War II is debated in Radu Jude’s epic-length film, which stars Ioana Iacob as Mariana, a director preparing an outdoor pageant that will reenact the Odessa Massacre of October 1941, in which her country’s soldiers joined their Nazi allies in killing tens of thousands of Jews and Romani in Ukraine; the title is drawn from an address by Marshal Ion Antonescu, who presided over the government at the time and was executed as a war criminal in 1946. Mariana intends her presentation as a rejoinder to the widespread belief among her fellow Romanians that they were but passive victims of German compulsion and that Antonescu was actually a heroic figure who protected his countrymen against both Nazis and Soviet Communists. Much of the screenplay consists of debates in which she argues her case with her married boyfriend, an airline pilot uninterested in her political views (and by whom she fears she might be pregnant), and with Movila (Alexnadru Dabija), the government official who approved her project but urges her to make it less provocative. These conversations are studded with quotations from philosophers and allusions to other filmmakers. Mariana also must contend with objections from re-enactors in her cast, who resist playing willing collaborators or even acting with Jews and Romani—a pointed reference to the bigotry Jude indicates is still prevalent in his country. Like what has preceded it, the concluding pageant has moments of very dark humor, but it is the somber message that dominates. The verbosity and length of Jude’s film are drawbacks, but its intensity makes it a strong optional purchase. (F. Swietek)