Zama

In Lucrecia Martel’s first period drama and her grandest production to date, a Spanish Empire official attempts to leave his post.

Don Diego de Zama, a low-level official stationed in a remote Spanish outpost in Argentina in the late 18th century, cuts a fine figure heroically looking out across the Paraguay River. However, a hero he is not – in fact, there’s very little for him to do. Equally ambitious and ineffective, Zama has requested to be promoted and relocated to Buenos Aires, but this has only led to one dead end after another. That is, until his ambition leads him down a strange and intoxicatingly surreal path.

Curator’s Note

Zama is Lucrecia Martel’s first feature since 2008’s The Headless Woman, itself a precursor to the dreamlike, woozy style employed here. It’s also her largest production to date, co-produced by a huge team including Pedro Almodóvar and Gael García Bernal.

After a lengthy production process, the film had its premiere at the Venice Film Festival, which coincided with Antonio di Benedetto’s source novel finally being translated into English, 50 years after its original publication. Both the film and novel have since received much international acclaim as key works of Argentinian cinema and literature, respectively.