Until its devastating final scenes, the way “I Do Not Care” makes its points is discursive rather than dramatic. Its action consists mostly of a series of arguments between Mariana and others — all men — who think they know more (or at least show that they care less) about Romanian history than she does.

Cast members complain about her ideas and techniques, threatening to quit if she doesn’t cater to their sensitivities. Her lover, a married airline pilot, tunes out her passionate disquisitions on truth and justice. An official from the government agency funding her project subjects her to condescending lectures about other historical abominations. He pauses in these grandiloquent flights of whataboutism to threaten to cancel the performance, and also to ask her out for a drink.

Iacob is energetic and persuasive in her portrayal of an embattled intellectual, defending the integrity of her vision against doubters and peppering her conversation with references to Hannah Arendt, Ludwig Wittgenstein and various homegrown literary luminaries. Her distrust of authority also has a feminist dimension. As in other recent Romanian films, this one casts an exasperated eye on a society where power and male pomposity go hand in hand. Mariana’s personal, emotional and sexual struggles play out in the background, but they’re clearly connected to the critical spirit of her work.