Director: Lucrecia Martel
Writers: Antonio Di Benedetto, Lucrecia Martel
Photography: Rui Pocas
Music: Ernesto Lecuona
Editors: Karen Harley, Miguel Schverdfinger
Cast: Daniel Giminez Cacho, Lola Duenas, Matheus Nachtergaele, Juan Minujin, Rafael Spregelburd, Daniel Veronese, Nahuel Cano
Zama is a historical drama set in an outpost on the sea of colonial Argentina, late in the 18th century. Don Diego de Zama (Daniel Gimenez Cacho, virtually carrying the whole thing though well supported) is a Spanish magistrate who can’t catch a break: the woman he wants to seduce rejects him for another, the governors to whom he reports will not act on his request for a transfer, and, more than anything (though somewhat hypocritically), he longs to be reunited with his wife and family. Gimenez Cacho puts on a face of long suffering as he suffers long, enduring the indignities heaped on him, finally, perhaps, earning redemption, but at a very high cost.
The first half of Zama is largely focused on the absurdities of the colonial enterprise, with features like enslaving natives often part of it. Zama hears the complaints of one couple who operate a plantation. They had to deal with a series of native uprisings, forced finally to the most extreme measures. “None were spared,” the woman reports. “And now there’s no one left to work.” They seem to have no compunctions about their request for “40 tame Indians,” which they feel is the least the Spanish administration can do for them. So go the travails of the colonialist. Zama is part of it, enmeshed in it however he might actually feel about it, however much he intends to get out. He opts to work within the system toward this end, for example betraying a colleague in a vain attempt to please a capricious governor. The governor who moves him to poorer quarters.
Zama is a historical drama set in an outpost on the sea of colonial Argentina, late in the 18th century. Don Diego de Zama (Daniel Gimenez Cacho, virtually carrying the whole thing though well supported) is a Spanish magistrate who can’t catch a break: the woman he wants to seduce rejects him for another, the governors to whom he reports will not act on his request for a transfer, and, more than anything (though somewhat hypocritically), he longs to be reunited with his wife and family. Gimenez Cacho puts on a face of long suffering as he suffers long, enduring the indignities heaped on him, finally, perhaps, earning redemption, but at a very high cost.
The first half of Zama is largely focused on the absurdities of the colonial enterprise, with features like enslaving natives often part of it. Zama hears the complaints of one couple who operate a plantation. They had to deal with a series of native uprisings, forced finally to the most extreme measures. “None were spared,” the woman reports. “And now there’s no one left to work.” They seem to have no compunctions about their request for “40 tame Indians,” which they feel is the least the Spanish administration can do for them. So go the travails of the colonialist. Zama is part of it, enmeshed in it however he might actually feel about it, however much he intends to get out. He opts to work within the system toward this end, for example betraying a colleague in a vain attempt to please a capricious governor. The governor who moves him to poorer quarters.
Eventually Zama comes to understand his futility, grows a beard, and volunteers to join a mission hunting for the notorious bandit and villain/hero of renown, Vicuna Porto, whose name is legend in those parts. His crimes are numerous and told often—raping, pillaging, maiming, murdering. Whenever his name comes up among Spanish officials they all claim he has been caught and executed long before. We even see one of them playing a gambling game and winning what are represented as Vicuna Porto’s ears.
But these officials know from the ongoing crimes in the countryside that Vicuna Porto has hardly been caught yet. They may also know more about how much raping or maiming has actually been going on. As it turns out, Vicuna Porto, as he tells it, is something of a victim himself. He has promised to make his gang wealthy and they’re inclined to hold him to it. He hasn’t figured out a way to make them rich yet. Well, he has figured out a way and it’s this: to lead them to reputed fields of “coconuts,” which is what they call geodes, which I had to look up for myself on the internet: “hollow, vaguely spherical rocks, in which masses of mineral matter (which may include crystals) are secluded.” They can be quite beautiful when they are cracked open. Zama keeps trying to tell them they are worthless and I guess they are, though the internet has prices “anywhere from $5 to $1,000,” depending on variables. It’s not nothing but it’s not like gold and El Dorado, amirite?
The second half of Zama is much the more enthralling, with notes of Apocalypse Now and The Revenant. The Europeans are in well over their heads on this all but suicidal mission. The natives, cunning, skilled, and brutal, systematically pick them clean. First there is the nighttime “march of the blind,” an amazing scene and one of the high points. In the middle of the night a large group of natives walk silently past their encampment. One woman brushes against Zama, feels his face, speaks to him softly in her unknown language. These natives take the Spaniards’ horses and move on just as silently. The Europeans passively hold place, fearful for their lives.
The next day, more natives and more trouble, with increasing brutality and ensuing delirium. Paradoxically these scenes are more beautiful than ever, disorienting even verging on psychedelic. The situation grows alarmingly worse when Vicuna Porto himself appears. As Zama and events spiral down further into fever-dream depths and depravity, Zama’s very will to live is itself affirmed. Not even the machinations of colonialism, ironically, can defeat him. He’s probably still sad, but I like to think Zama, this memorable character, has reunited with his wife and family and he is now enduring that.
The latest update for the big list at They Shoot Pictures, Don’t They? came through last week. As expected, there’s a fair amount of scrambling up due to last year’s Sight & Sound poll. Zama director and screenplay writer Lucrecia Martel is one director whose pictures are on the rise: Zama (which I had already scheduled as next-up from the separate 21st-century list) went from the “bubbling under” position last year of #1005 to #475, The Headless Woman from #689 to #410, and La Cienaga from #604 to #291. Chantal Akerman was even more the face of this shakeup, which indeed favored numerous directors who are not white men—a refreshing, interesting, and good development. Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles improbably (to me and to many) won the Sight & Sound poll last year outright—i.e., that is, it came in #1. That translated in the TSPDT weightings to a movement from #85 to #12. And more Akerman titles arrived, all on the rise: News From Home went from #816 to #205, Je Tu Il Elle from the not-even bubbling under #1126 to #552, D’Est from #776 to #599, and Toute une nuit from the catacombs #2420 to #899. Lots of these titles are completely new to me. I know it’s nerdy but this is a fun shakeup.
But these officials know from the ongoing crimes in the countryside that Vicuna Porto has hardly been caught yet. They may also know more about how much raping or maiming has actually been going on. As it turns out, Vicuna Porto, as he tells it, is something of a victim himself. He has promised to make his gang wealthy and they’re inclined to hold him to it. He hasn’t figured out a way to make them rich yet. Well, he has figured out a way and it’s this: to lead them to reputed fields of “coconuts,” which is what they call geodes, which I had to look up for myself on the internet: “hollow, vaguely spherical rocks, in which masses of mineral matter (which may include crystals) are secluded.” They can be quite beautiful when they are cracked open. Zama keeps trying to tell them they are worthless and I guess they are, though the internet has prices “anywhere from $5 to $1,000,” depending on variables. It’s not nothing but it’s not like gold and El Dorado, amirite?
The second half of Zama is much the more enthralling, with notes of Apocalypse Now and The Revenant. The Europeans are in well over their heads on this all but suicidal mission. The natives, cunning, skilled, and brutal, systematically pick them clean. First there is the nighttime “march of the blind,” an amazing scene and one of the high points. In the middle of the night a large group of natives walk silently past their encampment. One woman brushes against Zama, feels his face, speaks to him softly in her unknown language. These natives take the Spaniards’ horses and move on just as silently. The Europeans passively hold place, fearful for their lives.
The next day, more natives and more trouble, with increasing brutality and ensuing delirium. Paradoxically these scenes are more beautiful than ever, disorienting even verging on psychedelic. The situation grows alarmingly worse when Vicuna Porto himself appears. As Zama and events spiral down further into fever-dream depths and depravity, Zama’s very will to live is itself affirmed. Not even the machinations of colonialism, ironically, can defeat him. He’s probably still sad, but I like to think Zama, this memorable character, has reunited with his wife and family and he is now enduring that.
The latest update for the big list at They Shoot Pictures, Don’t They? came through last week. As expected, there’s a fair amount of scrambling up due to last year’s Sight & Sound poll. Zama director and screenplay writer Lucrecia Martel is one director whose pictures are on the rise: Zama (which I had already scheduled as next-up from the separate 21st-century list) went from the “bubbling under” position last year of #1005 to #475, The Headless Woman from #689 to #410, and La Cienaga from #604 to #291. Chantal Akerman was even more the face of this shakeup, which indeed favored numerous directors who are not white men—a refreshing, interesting, and good development. Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles improbably (to me and to many) won the Sight & Sound poll last year outright—i.e., that is, it came in #1. That translated in the TSPDT weightings to a movement from #85 to #12. And more Akerman titles arrived, all on the rise: News From Home went from #816 to #205, Je Tu Il Elle from the not-even bubbling under #1126 to #552, D’Est from #776 to #599, and Toute une nuit from the catacombs #2420 to #899. Lots of these titles are completely new to me. I know it’s nerdy but this is a fun shakeup.
I've liked all three Martel movies I've seen, esp. La Ciénaga.
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