Agora (Amenabar, 2009)

Agora is set in Alexandria around 400 AD, where Hypatia (who is smoking hot, if remarkably pale for someone living in Egypt before the advent of SPF30) teaches mathematical and astronomical theory at the Platonic school. Greco-Roman polytheism is being challenged and declining due to the rise of Roman Christianity. This is a bloody, brutal, nasty transition, complicated further by the Jews, who want to get in on the barracking and blood-shedding and righteously indignant action. Violence is perpetrated by all sides, although Amenabar takes especial care in drawing attention to the brutality with which the Christians peddled their faith. In the midst of this tumult, Hypatia just wants to think and read and theorise, specifically to figure out what the deal is with the movements of the planets and the sun. But her wanton intellectual pursuits are complicated by the oppressive dictates of Christian rule; and her interactions with the prefect Orestes and a Bishop-what-name-escapes-me-but-sounds-like-Cyril . . .

This movie was an absolute pleasure. Hypatia is depicted as dignified, inquisitive, humanitarian and driven. The fact that she is a woman is conspicuous, obviously, but never relied upon to demarcate her as extraordinary (her extraordariness does that). Recreation of the ancient city of Alexandria (including the Lighthouse of Alexandria, one of the lost Seven Wonders of the Ancient World) feels complete and never draws attention to the CGI involved. What was Most Excellent though was the premium the movie put on ideas and thoughts – the characters were invested in them, in higher principals, something beyond quotidian existence. How often do you see an action sequence predicated on people desperately trying to preserve texts within a Library? Or a woman weeping at the thought of knowledge being destroyed? No doubt you, like me, are disheartened by the dearth of intelligent, self-possessed female characters in modern cinema – Hypatia is a salve to that heartache.

Amenabar’s previous offerings include Abre Los Ojos (Open Your Eyes), which is notable as being the somewhat superior Spanish flick Vanilla Sky was based upon (although I champion Vanilla Sky as an effective headfuck of a film, even if Tom Cruise’s gurning rankles) and The Others, which is notable for being a bit pants, if intelligently crafted. Agora demonstrates further Amenabar's willful desire to make idiosyncratic films of substance.

Agora was the highest grossing film in Spain last year but unfortunately does not seem to have been embraced by the global market. Which is ridiculous. It has an epic scale, intelligent performances, and discusses weighty issues in an accessible manner. In a world of Platonic ideals, this would be the average film you saw when you headed to the multiplex. Such as it is it’s well worth the trip to an your local arthouse cinema; the epic representation of Alexandria rewards big-screen viewing.

(Stray observation: thanks to an excessive consumption of Asterix and Monty Python in my youth, I cannot see a roman garrison without giggling)

(Stray observation 2: Rachel Weisz (who plays Hypatia) is so very, very, terribly lovely)