Waiting for the Barbarians

In an isolated frontier outpost, a loyal Magistrate oversees the Empire's affairs, dismissing rumors of "barbarians." When military forces arrive and brutally persecute the captured outsiders, he witnesses the Empire's injustice firsthand. Outraged and powerless, he begins an intimate but complex relationship with a victim of the torture. This connection ultimately leads him to a defiant act of rebellion, marking him as an enemy of the state.