Zama

2017 Directed by Lucrecia Martel

In a remote South American colony in the late 18th century, officer Zama of the Spanish crown waits in vain for a transfer to a more prestigious location. He suffers small humiliations and petty politicking as he increasingly succumbs to lust and paranoia.

Daniel Giménez Cacho Lola Dueñas Matheus Nachtergaele Juan Minujín Nahuel Cano Mariana Nunes Carlos Defeo Rafael Spregelburd Daniel Veronese Germán de Silva Willy Lemos Vando Villamil Marcelo Sein Gustavo Böhm Massamba Seye

Alternative Title

扎馬

drama history

115 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by davidehrlich ★★★★ 3

maybe the best horny colonialist comedy since HOW TASTY WAS MY LITTLE FRENCHMAN.
like all Martel movies, i'm enjoying it a lot more after the fact. the last 30 minutes (and that llama) will stick with me for a long time, i'm sure. happy to leave it there for now.
Review by Michael Sicinski ★★★★ 4

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

[8]
Undoubtedly different from the rest of Lucrecia Martel's highly idiosyncratic filmography, Zama is nevertheless every inch a Martel film. Not only is it the work of a master, with each and every cut and framing so perfect as to feel somehow holy writ. It is, much like La Cienaga and The Holy Girl, a droning symphony of waiting, a study in suspension. And, like The Headless Woman, Zama is centered on a protagonist whose sense of entitlement is so great that not only is it his undoing. It becomes virtually indistinguishable from mental illness.
Based on the novel by Antonio Di Benedetto, a book that is widely regarded as the key text of Argentinean modernism, Zama places the existential…
Review by K. Austin Collins 2

Put your stumps in the sand, bih
Review by Jake Cole ★★★★½

Still utterly engrossed by this purgatorial satire that subtly shows how colonialism founded the modern, western middle class by priming present-day dissatisfaction and boredom with violently achieved power. In a world without Kiarostami, Martel may now be the finest living user of sound in film.
Review by Mike D'Angelo ★★★ 2

51/100
Perhaps the most damning thing I can say about Zama—a film I'd been eagerly anticipating for years—is that I spent much of it thinking not of Martel's previous work, but of John Sayles' worthy, lumbering Amigo. Apart from the llama photobomb (which may have been a happy accident to some degree, but I give directors credit for recognizing and retaining those), Martel stifles herself formally, adopting a deep-focus classicism that reinforces the inherent pitfalls of a movie about stasis. There's just precious little to engage the mind or the eye for much of the film—a standard-issue lit-adaptation problem (the book is reportedly Zama's interior monologue, and hilarious), but not a trap that I'd have expected this particular filmmaker to fall into. Gets livelier in the home stretch, thanks to a welcome change of scenery and the delayed appearance of the much-discussed villain, but I submit that when folks call Zama "difficult," what they really mean is "kinda dull."
Review by SilentDawn ★★★★½ 6

86
"The mischievous thrill at the burrowed, uncanny center of Lucrecia Martel’s Zama is a llama. In a pivotal scene, Don Diego de Zama (Daniel Giménez Cacho) - our asshole buffoon protagonist – sits and, in one scene of many, accepts his position within the Spanish Empire. He’s a lonely Corregidor defined by his aimlessness; angry at the reality of his prospects. For a majority of the film, he is entirely subject to the power of others as his own is fruitlessly overtaken and spent needlessly. And in this moment, as he is, yet again, forced to come to terms with his place in the grand realities of the colonist mythos, a llama walks towards the camera and plants itself next to…
Review by Steve Lovecraft ★★★ 11

Here's another instance where I saw a completely different movie than what every other critic did. For all of its visual strength and seemingly fertile thematic ground, Zama holds the record for the one movie I've fallen asleep to the most before initial completion. It took me six attempts to wakefully traverse this hour and forty five minute long period piece. Whether it be a credit to the intriguing soundtrack and gorgeous cinematography or a boon to a good nap, the movie is seething in ambience, so get your coffee in before you watch it or Zama will zonk you out.
Ask most other reviewers and they'll say this is director Lucretia Martel's triumphant return to film making. It's a…
Review by Filipe Furtado ★★½ 2

A post-colonial Latin American cinema quagmire: if everything that comes from Europe is rotten, why format your film for European consumption? Not devoid of some strong moments, but the overall effect is diluted.
Review by Alex Engquist ★★★★½

the bureaucracy and brutality of colonialism, an ongoing punishment of bodies (and minds) with no reward. immersively pungent, overflowing with brilliant use of sound design and compositions.
on the compositions in particular: Martel emphasizes verticality within the frame but bodies are hardly ever contained in its boundaries, often cut off at the head or torso. this makes the images seem more narrow (even cramped) than they actually are, an illusion Martel further builds upon by drawing attention to their surprisingly vast depth of field, creating a sense of the "action" of a scene having been crammed awkwardly into the foreground. the figures visible in the background are often those of indigenous or enslaved people, who are either as still and…
Review by Kristen Yoonsoo Kim ★★★★ 3

dreamy and mysterious without overtly framing itself as such. lucrecia martel is so innovative with sound -- here she takes it to a farcical extent. excellent llama cameo.
NYFF 2017.
Review by nathan smith ★★★★½ 1

Colonialism Roleplay ASMR - Must Watch Till End!
the first word we hear in ZAMA is "voyeur," an accusation laid against the title character by a group of women he watches bathe on the beach. zama flees as a woman pursues him, only to turn around and strike her down. it is this inciting incident that frames the rest of the film and its perspective on colonialism: not as violence against women persay, but as voyeurism. the indigenous population and enslaved persons are often pushed to the margins of the frame, but they are not absent; martel often shows them watching their oppressors, as much as their oppressors watch them. few films i can think of (the only that immediately…
Review by Jake Cole ★★★★½

Colonialism as a closed loop. The faces of the generals and the enemies change but the names seem to stay the same, all the while the once proud official slowly deteriorates, his clothes rotting and his mind melting. Martel's rapturous compositions manage to feel cramped even at their most expansive, using intersecting planar blocking to add to the general sense of confusion, of not knowing where to look or what to do. The last third, which leaps ludicrously far away from the preceding material, somehow sharpens the entire feature, bringing its nightmarish logic into crystalline focus.

Recent reviews

Review by isma ★

No entendí el plot y encima me pareció una novelita de época esas que pasan a la tarde en Telefé o el 13.
Osea, un bodrio.
Cine Argento
Review by Leo Heringer ★★★

lucrecia continua com uma mao otima pra manipular o som dar dimensão ao espaço mas dessa vez fiquei perdido de um jeito ruim na história preciso rever numa qualidade boa mubi arruma esse player pelo amor de deus
Review by Emily ★★★½

I feel like I’ve seen this film before. I love a good meditation on the absurdity of life and death but I didn’t need another one about white colonizers becoming unmoored in a sea of unfamiliar people and places. That said, Zama was beautifully directed and filmed. The contrast between the trappings of European society and the world the characters truly inhabited was tangible through an impressive attention to detail in costuming and locations. Also liked the quiet and simple pacing.
Review by zcrates66

🛶I often find myself kind of discombobulated with period pieces (I think cause I sometimes lack a strong understanding of the world that is shown, either that I could just be a general idiot), and this one wasn't different. BUT I think it was really effective in showing the pathetic nature of the motivations/ideologies that Zama lives by. the sound design was awesome, wish I had a better setup for that🛶
Review by annamyrm ★★

As with the rest of Lucrecia Martel’s films, you have to be in the mood to watch this, which I wasn’t on the first try. On the second, when I fully committed to the slow pace and meandering narrative, I found a new appreciation for the cinematography and soundscape.
This wasn’t necessarily easy or enjoyable to watch but the last half an hour will stay with me for a long time.
Review by Brandon Melton ★★★½

I mean, I have no idea, but I am going to be thinking about this one for awhile. Kind of reminds me of that stupid seminary joke where people say the Reformation happened because dudes wanted to fuck and drink. Has there ever been a more blue-balled character than Don Diego de Zama?
Review by Martín Miguez ★★★

Nuestra Piratas del Caribe.
Review by judgrmboothby ★★★★½

Trippy, tragic and beautifully made. Daniel Gimenez Cacho’s performance as the title character is powerfully subtle and subtly powerful.
Review by worminheaven ★★★★

Could watch this every day for a month and still feel like you'd just had a 20 minute fever dream.
Review by Sloane ★★★★½

Mittyesque Zama is a man who’s function is to aspire, expiating a contradiction that long predates him with a life of hopeless misery. Martel denies Zama’s libidinal foibles from being pitiable by framing them with true suffering, to Zama he is a prisoner and a victim, the black slaves and indigenous people around him show you very very clearly he is not.
There is so much going on in this movie, initially I was bored, but now I can’t stop thinking about it. If you told me after the first 20 minutes that this is a film I would plan to rewatch sooner rather than later I’d laugh. I want to see how it glitters from different angles.
Review by jazzboothby ★★★★

Immersive...the whole time I was like “man I’m glad I was born in 1996!”
Conveys how imperialism ruins everything and even manages to make white people miserable in abstruse & deserved ways. Never felt heavy-handed or pedagogical and loved how pathetic all the white people were. And the main dude who played Zama rules — what a performance!!
Review by WolfgangWeber

Venice, Toronto, Oscars