Zama

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Adapted from Antonio Di Benedetto’s existential 1956 novel, Zama takes place in the late-18th century and accompanies Don Diego de Zama (Daniel Giménez Cacho), a white clerk born and bred in America who serves at the whims of the Spanish crown while dreaming of leaving that ‘despicable end of the world’. Martel emasculates and decentres her protagonist in a delirious environment that must be the current border between Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay.

The film proposes a daring hypothesis about the colonial past, imagining it with boldness and playfulness while drawing our attention to a world that, although nonsensical and apparently too far back in time, has not entirely ceased to exist, revealing patriarchal and racial relations that still organise Latin American societies today.

It’s an intoxicating film, which like Martel's The Headless Woman creates its own peculiar atmosphere, rhythm and logic. Intense and consistently disarming – and at times, very funny – Martel’s assured style balances the personal and the political, as Zama’s frustrations and failings are viewed through the prism of the broader colonialist malaise of Spain’s imperialist grip across the Americas.

This film is F-Rated. The F-Rating is applied to all films which are directed by women and/or written by women. Find out more about F-Rating.

Book to Film Club: Thursday 26 August, 7.30pm

Join us for our revived Book to Film Club to discuss the film and its adaptation.

Find out more about Book to Film Club >>

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