BARBARIANS: The Dark Side of the Ancient Roman Empire

I love it when my love of cinema combines with my love of history; I adore war and costume films, which stimulate my imagination like no other. I only regret that filmmakers do not take us into forgotten eras more often, though on the other hand I understand how costly and time-consuming such productions are. Among historical films, I have a particular fondness for those set in the Middle Ages and antiquity, especially during the times of the Roman Empire. That is why I awaited the premiere of Barbarians with such great hope.

What encouraged me to watch the series was not only the action set in my beloved historical era, but also the fact that the plot was to tell of the massacre in the Teutoburg Forest – one of the most infamous Roman battles, when the Germanic tribes wiped out three Imperial legions. Almost 30,000 Roman soldiers commanded by Publius Quinctilius Varus fell into an ambush in unfamiliar, difficult terrain: and in this Germanic forest, in mud and swamp, they perished one after another from the weapons of warriors charging from behind the trees.

Reportedly, only a dozen or so legionaries survived. After this bloody incident, the Romans established the Rhine as the Empire’s unbreachable border, never again venturing deep into the Germanic forests; never again did they mark any legion with the numbers XVII, XVIII, and XIX, deeming them unlucky (since it was precisely those legions that were slaughtered in the Teutoburg Forest).

Barbarians was produced by the Germans, so I counted on a spectacle far removed from American pathos and clichés, bloody, brutal, and realistic. I was also incredibly intrigued by the fact that all the Romans’ lines were to be spoken in Latin (!), and the Germanic warriors’ – in German. In fact, only one thing raised my doubts: it was a Netflix series. For this reason, I wondered whether I would get another mass-produced, underdeveloped production, which the streaming giant is unfortunately associated with.

Luckily, it turned out that although Barbarians has its flaws, it is still a very solid proposition.

Enthusiasts of historical spectacles should be satisfied. Barbarians lacks a bit of grandeur, apart from the battle in the Teutoburg Forest there are not many battle sequences in the series. Fans of great screen battles may feel a sense of insufficiency – especially since the few fight and duel scenes turn out really well, and it is evident that the creators know how to film them, which makes one wish for more.

The production makes up for it, however, with atmosphere, attention to historical detail, and a sense of realism, with the creation of a tangible world of old Germanic traditions and beliefs. Perhaps it lacks a bit of rawness and dirt, so expected in a series about barbarian tribes, but the beautiful shots of wild, German, menacing nature make us immerse deeply in this mysterious, cruel land nonetheless.

Barbarians focuses not on spectacular scenes, but on sketching the relations between the main characters and portraying how the frustration accumulating within the Germanic tribes matures into open rebellion against the Roman oppressors.

Most of the action is taken up by the build-up to the battle, by drawing the tensions along the Romans–Germans line, which, contrary to appearances, is not boring, since the creators opted for a short, well-thought-out, filler-free runtime (episodes of 40–50 minutes each).

We follow the complex, well-written, and surprising fates of the characters. Foregrounded is a pair placed on two sides of the barricade: Thusnelda (Jeanne Goursaud), highly placed in the tribe, and the Roman commander, a Germanic boy raised by Publius Varus, Arminius (Laurence Rupp). These are two strong characters, but it is he who is the more ambiguous and thus the more interesting one.

Torn between his Germanic origins and Roman upbringing, straddling contradictory duties, he commits both magnificent and morally dubious acts. Arminius is without a doubt a character who will polarize viewers, but it is precisely this ambiguity of the main protagonist that constitutes the series’ great strength. Rupp, who plays him, has in him a certain mystery, a withdrawn charisma and enigma that draw one to the screen and to subsequent episodes.

Arminius is the only character so internally conflicted. The black-and-white division of arguments may be irritating. The creators leave no shadow of doubt: the Romans are without exception cruel, evil, and greedy, while the Germans are brave, oppressed, and persecuted. The former are at times almost caricatural and cartoonish in their villainy. Such an interpretation of history was adopted in the series, with the narrative consistently conducted from the perspective of the titular barbarians: but this sympathizing with the Germanic side of the conflict is not surprising in a series created by Germans, descendants of those tribes.

In its message, Barbarians is an indictment hurled at tyranny and a story of the struggle for freedom and dignity. The series focuses on the dark side of ancient Rome – a greedy, cruel Empire, in its arrogance attempting to subjugate the world. We watch Romans treating all foreign cultures as inferior, bound to acknowledge the Empire’s civilizational superiority; we see Romans destroying states and erasing traditions from the earth, Romans as invaders and tormentors. For was that not precisely what the Empire was for contemporary Europeans, ground under the boots of legionaries, erased from the surface of history?

Barbarians is a very good proposition for fans of bygone eras and all those who would like to transport themselves into another reality, if only for a few hours. A well-thought-out, neatly intertwining plot and a convincing represented world make up an enjoyable immersive experience. Barbarians has a chance to grow into a worthy successor to Vikings – the title to which the creators clearly aspire.