Not at all barbaric: My Quick take on “Barbaren” (Netflix)
I always thought that the word “barbarian” had some barbaric connotation, but then mighty Arnold Schwarzenegger had somewhat clarified when he had portrayed “Conan-The barbarian”. But I was pleasantly surprised that the term “barbarian (Barbaren)” was given to the Germanic tribes who had fled into forests of Germania to run away from invading the Roman army. This is a miniseries (just 6 episodes long) based on a fictional account of how the different tribes of the forest come together to rebel against the mighty Romans.
It’s a well-made series by Netflix and is worth a watch just in case you love such historical fiction tales. The series is just one event long like our Tanhaji which just talks about the conquest of Sinhagad, similarly, the series talks about the Battle of Teutoburg forest where the 3 legions of a mighty Roman army are ambushed by a handful of men of different tribes. The rebellion is led by Arminius who is a Germanic tribesman but raised by Romans (Those days the invading Roman army used to take children of Tribal Chieftains as ‘collateral or security to buy the loyalties of the tribes). He switches the sides after seeing the atrocities done by Romans on his tribes.
Only thing I felt that, since it is based on just one event, hence it qualifies to be made in a feature film length format, instead it was a bit overstretched into 6-episode long series. Apart from this everything else is of top-notch quality, the production quality, battle scenes, casting (there are no beefed up hunks in the cast, just normal built people which adds to authenticity) / performances, and best part is low light photography (it adds certain kind of eeriness to the setting) which is simply awesome.
Can be watched.
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