Magellan
An anti-colonial portrait of Portuguese explorer Magellan (Gael García Bernal) during the period in which he plundered and set fire to Malaysia. Directed by the Filipino master Lav Diaz.
Magellan is a grand, decolonial retelling of the 16th-century Portuguese explorer’s life and career. Celebrated international star Gael García Bernal delivers a bold performance as the film’s lead, who we encounter initially as a rebellious idealist, angered by the narrow-minded avarice of kings. Before long, however, he’s given shared command of an expedition by Spanish ruler Carlos I, and transforms into a petty, paranoid, and hypocritical tyrant, terrorizing his crew and ultimately the inhabitants of Cebu and Mactan.
Lav Diaz has regularly dedicated himself to Filipino history, almost always presenting epochal events through the experiences of commoners rather than historical figures. But Magellan may be Diaz’s most forceful debunking of conventional histories and myths yet. Perceptive viewers will sense echoes of anti-colonial classics by filmmakers like Werner Herzog and Gillo Pontecorvo. (source: www.tiff.net)