Zama (2017)
Country: ARG/BRA/SP/DOM/FR/NL/MEX/SW/US/POR/LEB
Technical: col 115m
Director: Lucrecia Martel
Cast: Daniel Giménez Cacho, Lola Dueñas, Matheus Nachtergaele
Synopsis:
The magistrate of a remote outpost in Paraguay in the late eighteenth century finds himself paralysed at every turn: in his relations with women, in his requests for repatriation, and in his ultimate desperate gambit of falling in with a punitive expedition to the interior.
Review:
Based on a 1950s existential novel by Antonio di Benedetto, Martel's film is first and foremost an adaptation of a classic of Argentinian fiction, and through that a reappraisal of the country's colonial past. An essential problem for the spectator, besides a slow pace and elliptical narration, is the lack of a voice for the indigenous characters, epitomised by the Spanish noblewoman's maid, who has chosen to be mute. Zama himself is mostly content to observe rather than speak. A man of uncertain ethics, he clashes with his assistant over racial politics, but attempts to protect his scribe, who has perhaps written one of the territory's first works of literature. Considerably less fun than Aguirre, Wrath of God, which it superficially resembles, this is yet another succès d'estime to translate modern fiction into obscure cinema.
Country: ARG/BRA/SP/DOM/FR/NL/MEX/SW/US/POR/LEB
Technical: col 115m
Director: Lucrecia Martel
Cast: Daniel Giménez Cacho, Lola Dueñas, Matheus Nachtergaele
Synopsis:
The magistrate of a remote outpost in Paraguay in the late eighteenth century finds himself paralysed at every turn: in his relations with women, in his requests for repatriation, and in his ultimate desperate gambit of falling in with a punitive expedition to the interior.
Review:
Based on a 1950s existential novel by Antonio di Benedetto, Martel's film is first and foremost an adaptation of a classic of Argentinian fiction, and through that a reappraisal of the country's colonial past. An essential problem for the spectator, besides a slow pace and elliptical narration, is the lack of a voice for the indigenous characters, epitomised by the Spanish noblewoman's maid, who has chosen to be mute. Zama himself is mostly content to observe rather than speak. A man of uncertain ethics, he clashes with his assistant over racial politics, but attempts to protect his scribe, who has perhaps written one of the territory's first works of literature. Considerably less fun than Aguirre, Wrath of God, which it superficially resembles, this is yet another succès d'estime to translate modern fiction into obscure cinema.
Country: ARG/BRA/SP/DOM/FR/NL/MEX/SW/US/POR/LEB
Technical: col 115m
Director: Lucrecia Martel
Cast: Daniel Giménez Cacho, Lola Dueñas, Matheus Nachtergaele
Synopsis:
The magistrate of a remote outpost in Paraguay in the late eighteenth century finds himself paralysed at every turn: in his relations with women, in his requests for repatriation, and in his ultimate desperate gambit of falling in with a punitive expedition to the interior.
Review:
Based on a 1950s existential novel by Antonio di Benedetto, Martel's film is first and foremost an adaptation of a classic of Argentinian fiction, and through that a reappraisal of the country's colonial past. An essential problem for the spectator, besides a slow pace and elliptical narration, is the lack of a voice for the indigenous characters, epitomised by the Spanish noblewoman's maid, who has chosen to be mute. Zama himself is mostly content to observe rather than speak. A man of uncertain ethics, he clashes with his assistant over racial politics, but attempts to protect his scribe, who has perhaps written one of the territory's first works of literature. Considerably less fun than Aguirre, Wrath of God, which it superficially resembles, this is yet another succès d'estime to translate modern fiction into obscure cinema.