Human Tragedy

Rating: 9/10 (3 November 2013)

Heroes and politicians, two remarkably different breeds. The first, fight bravely and spill blood, and the second, send them to do the dirty deed and despise them for being what they made them to be. And so Caius Martius ,courageous and conceited, enters the politics and quickly sinks in the quicksand of the foul swamps of populism. Ralph Fiennes in his directing debut, sets this classic play in some troubled, presumably Balkan nation, and in modern time. Many have tried that novelty, but here it is not a gimmick but the statement that nothing new happens in this world. If we only picked up a dusty history book from a long forgotten shelf, we might have avoided a war or two. But, then there is a lot of money to be made in human tragedy. Nothing pays better than tears and despair. Not our own, of course, but in some other unimportant land. Far away and easy not to pay attention to, almost as easy as for politicians to ignore heroes. Blood stains and Armani suits never go together, although they are never far from each other.