Review: Zama

Image courtesy of Strand Releasing.

Don Diego de Zama is first seen standing - staring straight ahead - and striking a pose on the shore of a beach in a manner in which he likely believes that Christopher Columbus or some other famed explorer of the New World once struck. We can tell from the first shot of Lucrecia Martel's visually gorgeous and downright peculiar new film - her first in nine years - that the picture's titular character takes himself seriously. Unfortunately for him, no one else appears to.

In the film, Zama (Daniel Gimenez Cacho) is a bureaucrat who is stuck on an island somewhere in the New World in the late 18th century. He has been waiting in vain for a transfer from the governor that will enable him to move from the godforsaken place where he has been living and reunite with his family. Although Zama likely views his circumstances as veering toward tragic, they are presented as absurd.

Early in the film, Zama is busted while sneaking a glance at some native women who are nude on the beach. Shortly after being chased off by the women, he must deal with a native, who has been tied up by the authorities for reasons unknown. Upon finally deciding to free the man, the native runs headfirst into a door and tells Zama of a fish that swam in a body of water that wanted to expel it. This is the closest thing in the film to Martel actually spelling out her intentions, but the man's parable is an apt description of colonialism.

Zama's problems go from bad to worse. During the film's most absurdly funny moment, Zama's request for a transfer gets a major setback during a visit to a local government figure, who ridicules our hero as a llama prowls behind him and makes noises. Then, Zama's attempts to woo a noblewoman falls flat. Finally, he is sent off on a mission to track down a notorious criminal, only to be held captive by the man after first being kidnapped by a group of Indians covered in red paint.

I've often had mixed reactions to Martel's work, despite the critical acclaim that her pictures tend to draw. I liked "La Cienega," but "The Holy Girl" didn't quite work for me and "The Headless Woman" was, in my opinion, opaque in all the wrong ways. "Zama" is probably her best film to date. That doesn't mean I found it to be flawless, but it's certainly worthy of praise and likely to stick around in your head for a while after the fact.

The film is filled with memorable - and memorably strange - imagery: the aforesaid scene with the llama, a gorgeous sequence in which Zama and his men travel via horseback through a bright green swampy area and a final boat ride following a grim act of violence. Gimenez Cacho nails a tricky role - Zama is, for all extents and purposes, a figure of ridicule, but the actor plays the role with the requisite seriousness that allows for Zama to be the butt of visual gags. The film's odd twangs and jangly guitars on the soundtrack are jarring and add to the movie's overall strange ambiance.

This is not a film for everyone, but those who enjoy offbeat - yet substantive - cinema will no doubt want to miss "Zama." Although the picture shares some of the stylistic traits of Martel's previous works, it is more accessible than her most recent works and, in my opinion, more engaging.