Zama

Poor Don Diego de Gama. Both parents Spanish, but he's never been to Spain, as he is frequently snobbily reminded by the Spanish-born residents in his 1790s Argentina back country town. He's a bureacrat serving a king 6000 miles away, unable to decide anything by himself, a fish in water (in a ruling metaphor) who can't live in a wet place. He wants to leave but can't, because everything is on hold. Will a military expedition bail him out? Bitterly totally ironic, structured around off camera sounds that are never what hearers think they are. I'm now hunting down the 1956 novel by Antonio_di_Benedetto.

Period cinema often lacks authenticity, a sense of faux deprivation when such scenarios are encountered at best. Not here however, where the discomforts and hardships experienced by the colonial Spanish and their conquests leaves no room for misplaced romanticism. To extract the most from this piece I suspect you already need an interest of it, to have read the book upon which it is based (and enjoyed it), to be an avid follower of those times and of that era. It's elegantly performed, believable and honest but you can easily be distracted if you're engagement light begins to fade and dim, needing only to do so by a fraction to initiate the disconnection.

Despite the occasional bursts of violence, this film takes its time - lending emphasis to the slowness of the bureaucracy that traps Zama in his situation, and the boredom and frustration he suffers.

Is he complicit in his fate through not playing the game as expected, or are his ambitions simply fantasy in the first place? I'm not sure - but I got a similar feel here as I did from "Waiting for the Barbarians" - although that was more brutal and Mark Rylance the better man. In both cases, though, I was drawn in and really wanted to find out where it was headed as a story.

A film to immerse oneself in.

Based on the novel by Antonio di Benedetto: in the 18th century, Don Diego De Zama (Daniel Giminez Cacho) is an administrative official assigned by Spain to oversee a South American colony (later part of Argentina). His attempts to change his status, position and work location (mainly to reunite with his wife and newborn child) are met with great resistance.

"Zama" is courageous in exploring issues of both race and class within colonialism. The main character and those like him falsely believe they are superior to the people indigenous to the land. But this principle comes back to haunt de Zama as well. He is of Spanish heritage but was born in "the colonies" and is thus considered inferior to those who are Spanish-born. He is stuck in the middle of a deplorable hierarchy and mindset.

Despite the film's assets, the narrative falls into something that is jumbled, incoherent, and sometimes incomprehensible. It is also too long. This is unfortunate considering its potential.

In the later scenes, the shortcomings are appeased with beautiful natural surroundings complemented with a blue sky. This does create a pleasant serenity but at this point, the enjoyment is only a consolation rather than an enhancement. - dbamateurcritic

I read several good reviews about Zama, including some friends recommended me as an excellent movie, however, I only found imperfections, a boring movie for almost two hours and nothings happens, unlikely what looks like a great production it ends on an amount of resources without taking advantage. Too many mistakes, particularly with the spelling, why the natives do not have any accent? or even "the colonial" does not speak proper, poor conversations, bad timing, many mistakes from art department, fake and poor costume design, the director does not take advantage of the beautiful environment, even the sound is bad... just a few fake birds, in the beginning, the acting of Lola Dueñas was good, the rest of the cast does not shine at all, especially Juan Minujin so sad acting, when he speaks you cant understand what is he saying!

For a long time did not saw people leaving the cinema complaining... Such a shame Lucrecia Martel used a masterpiece novel from Antonio Di Benedetto, and made this meaningless and snob movie.