Waiting for the Barbarians

Colonel Joll arrives at the desert frontier outpost, breaking the long-earned peace with a new, opaque plan from the empire. He insists on a brutal truth-seeking process that clashes with the Magistrate's cautious governance. The encounter marks the first clash between two incompatible visions of rule.

Joll begins the interrogation regime, forcing the truth through torture on an innocent man and his nephew over sheep rustling. The Magistrate pleads for restraint, but Joll pushes ahead regardless of the cost. The event establishes the terrible price civilians will pay under the colonel's methods.

Joll leaves the fort the next day, taking his ruthless methods with him but leaving the Magistrate to govern in his absence. The Magistrate orders the released prisoners home, attempting to salvage a shred of humanity from the regime's brutality. The empire's program continues to unfold beyond the fort walls.

A few months later, a former prisoner with two broken ankles is seen panhandling in the streets, bearing the scars of the regime. The Magistrate offers food and shelter and attempts to heal her injuries. He learns of the tortures endured and the death of her father, deepening his sense of responsibility.

Soldiers misinterpret the Magistrate's mercy as lust and accuse him of intending to keep the girl as a concubine. He discovers the girl's trauma and the brutal death of her father, which hardens his resolve to protect her. He asks her to stay, but she chooses to return to her people.

After a long desert journey, the Magistrate seeks talks with the mountain nomads, hoping to restore relations across cultural divides. The nomads are wary and upset, but the Magistrate's reputation for helping one of their own buys him a cautious passage. He and his escorts fail to win lasting trust, and the negotiation remains fragile.

Officer Mandel, under Colonel Joll, is assigned to command the fort, replacing the Magistrate's authority. He immediately imposes harsher measures and accuses the Magistrate of treachery, reshaping life at the outpost. The Magistrate is stripped of his office as Mandel tightens control.

The Magistrate is publicly shamed and has his home and possessions confiscated as Mandel's grip tightens. He is released but remains under suspicion, a political stray in a town now aligned with a harsher regime. Colonel Joll departs with a large force to pursue the mountain nomads.

Disgraced and stripped of status, the Magistrate becomes disheveled and homeless. A former servant takes him in, feeding and clothing him as the empire's power continues to erode his life. The personal cost of the regime's brutality becomes plainly visible.

Colonel Joll's campaign consolidates the nomads into a single barbarian army, and the fort is shaken by a scene of brutality as a horse arrives bearing a mutilated corpse. Mandel withdraws with some troops, while others loot, rape, and murder in the town. The outpost's decency collapses under the weight of military zeal.

Joll returns with only a handful of survivors and sits in his coach, detached from reality. The Magistrate witnesses the collapse of empire and reluctantly prepares to leave, both of them fleeing the fort with no supplies or horses. The townspeople punch back with rocks as the two men depart.

As the Magistrate strolls the town, children play at guards beside scarecrows while he recalls the nomad girl in the desert. A vast dust cloud announces the approach of an immense army of nomadic warriors, threatening the town. The closing image frames the escape into an uncertain, looming conflict.