Magellan

From the first astonishing image to the last, everything in this monumental film from Filipino filmmaker Lav Diaz carries surprising historical heft, thanks to the unique dimension that only cinema can provide. Actor Gael García Bernal (Amores Perros) reconceives his star power through Diaz’s discerning camera, disappearing into the role of Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, who in the 16th century navigated a crew to Southeast Asia after convincing the Spanish crown to fund his journey.

Debunking conventional colonialist histories and myths of the Age of Discovery, Diaz mounts an absorbing and visually breathtaking story of conquest and obsession, depicting Magellan’s journey to the Malayan Archipelago as an epic and relevant portrait of human vulnerability in the eternal struggle against oppression. In Portuguese, Spanish, Tagalog, and French with English subtitles.

“A hypnotizing and spiritual epic.” —Josh Slater-Williams, IndieWire