Direction: Lav Diaz
Country: Philippines / Portugal / other
Meticulously directed by Filipino filmmaker Lav Diaz (From What is Before, 2014; The Woman Who Left, 2016) and co-produced by Albert Serra, Magellan is an idiosyncratic, pseudo-epic historical film portraying the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan. It reenacts his attempts to conquer and convert the spice lands to Christianity—notably Malacca in Malaysia (under the orders of King Manuel I of Portugal) and later the island of Cebu in the Philippines (in service of the Spanish crown)—in the 16th century. Magellan, compellingly embodied by Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal (Amores Perros, 2000; The Motorcycle Diaries, 2004; No, 2012), faces markedly different outcomes in these expeditions, the latter undertaken after leaving his pregnant wife Beatriz (Angela Azevedo) behind in Portugal.
Patiently narrated and beautifully photographed, the film makes extensive use of static shots that at times extend beyond necessity, juxtaposing the beauty of the landscape with the odiousness of human actions. It unfolds as an uneven, slow-burning saga of two hours and forty minutes, yet remains rich in historical detail and atmosphere, sustained by a hypnotic mise-en-scène in which the protagonist’s intransigence and creeping madness are keenly felt.
Lushly lensed and intensely cerebral, Magellan is both haunting and frustrating, quietly unsettling in its poetic and political power.
