{ "id": "ep2s8nr922", "slug": "zama-2017-film", "title": "Zama (2017 film)", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "label": "Drama and biographical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2015-to-2019", "label": "Drama films 2015 to 2019", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2015-to-2019" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2015-to-2019.drama-films-2017-and-2018", "label": "Drama films 2017 and 2018", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2015-to-2019.drama-films-2017-and-2018" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.latam.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Latin America and the Caribbean · 2001 to 2020: Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "path": [ { "id": "geo.latam", "label": "Latin America and the Caribbean", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam" }, { "id": "geo.latam.t2001", "label": "Latin America and the Caribbean · 2001 to 2020", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam.t2001" }, { "id": "geo.latam.t2001.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam.t2001.culture" }, { "id": "geo.latam.t2001.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam.t2001.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.latam.t2001.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam.t2001.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.latam.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.latam.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Zama (2017) is Lucrecia Martel's fourth feature, an adaptation of Antonio Di Benedetto's 1956 novel, premiering at Venice. It stars Daniel Giménez Cacho as a colonial magistrate waiting for a royal transfer that never comes.", "snippet": "Zama (2017) is Lucrecia Martel's fourth feature, an adaptation of Antonio Di Benedetto's 1956 novel, premiering at Venice. It stars Daniel Giménez Cacho as a colonial magistrate waiting for a royal transfer that never comes.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2015-to-2019.drama-films-2017-and-2018", "markdown": "# Zama (2017 film)\n\n**Zama** is a 2017 Spanish-language drama film directed by Lucrecia Martel, adapted from Antonio Di Benedetto's 1956 novel of the same name. It follows Don Diego de Zama, a magistrate of the Spanish Crown born in South America, who waits in a late-18th-century colonial outpost in what is now Paraguay for a letter from the King granting him a transfer that never arrives.[1](https://www.labiennale.org/en/cinema/2017/program-cinema-2017-press/lucrecia-martel-zama-0) • [2](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/may/27/zama-review) Premiering at the 2017 [Venice Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/venice-film-festival), it was Martel's fourth feature and her first in nine years, following *[The Headless Woman](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-headless-woman)* (2008).[1](https://www.labiennale.org/en/cinema/2017/program-cinema-2017-press/lucrecia-martel-zama-0) • [3](https://www.americasquarterly.org/fulltextarticle/film-review-zama/)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Director and source | Written and directed by Lucrecia Martel, adapted from Antonio Di Benedetto's 1956 novel *Zama*[1](https://www.labiennale.org/en/cinema/2017/program-cinema-2017-press/lucrecia-martel-zama-0) |\n| Premiere | 1 September 2017, Venice Film Festival (Sala Perla 2)[1](https://www.labiennale.org/en/cinema/2017/program-cinema-2017-press/lucrecia-martel-zama-0) |\n| Runtime and language | 115 minutes; Spanish, with Qom, Pilagá and Mbyá Guaraní also spoken[1](https://www.labiennale.org/en/cinema/2017/program-cinema-2017-press/lucrecia-martel-zama-0) • [4](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-zama-review-20180426-story.html) |\n| Lead cast | Daniel Giménez Cacho (Don Diego de Zama), Lola Dueñas (Luciana Piñares de Luenga), Matheus Nachtergaele, Juan Minujín, Mariana Nunes, Rafael Spregelburd[1](https://www.labiennale.org/en/cinema/2017/program-cinema-2017-press/lucrecia-martel-zama-0) |\n| Key crew | Cinematography Rui Poças; editing Miguel Schverdfinger and Karen Harley; sound Guido Berenblum and Emmanuel Croset[1](https://www.labiennale.org/en/cinema/2017/program-cinema-2017-press/lucrecia-martel-zama-0) |\n| Reception | 96% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer (113 reviews) against a 58% audience score; US gross of $200.2K[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/zama) |\n| Honors | KNF Award at International Film Festival Rotterdam 2018; Goya Award nomination 2018 for Best Iberoamerican Film; ranked =196 in the 2022 Sight and Sound Greatest Films critics' poll[6](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2018/films/zama) • [7](https://www.fondazioneprada.org/project/zama/?lang=en) • [8](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/50f2ab96-3b5d-5843-82ef-737a8c700c93/zama) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot\n\nDon Diego de Zama is an officer of the Spanish Crown born in South America, stationed in a remote colonial town. He waits for a letter from the King granting him a transfer to a better place, and must ensure that nothing overshadows that prospect. He is forced to accept submissively every task entrusted to him by successive Governors, who come and go while he stays behind. The years pass and the letter never arrives. When Zama realizes everything is lost, he joins a party of soldiers pursuing a dangerous bandit.[1](https://www.labiennale.org/en/cinema/2017/program-cinema-2017-press/lucrecia-martel-zama-0)\n\nThe character is an \"americano\", born in the Americas rather than in Spain, and his social standing leads him to disdain his local environment.[9](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/film-week-zama-makes-slow-jest-mouldering-colonial-mandarin) He is first seen on a beach looking out to sea rather than facing his responsibilities on land, and an early scene in which he slaps an indigenous woman who chases him away establishes the arrogant sense of entitlement that pervades his behavior.[9](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/film-week-zama-makes-slow-jest-mouldering-colonial-mandarin) His hoped-for destination is a matter Martel changed from the novel: where Di Benedetto's Zama waits for Buenos Aires, the film's Zama hopes for Lerma, in the province of Salta.[10](https://www.acmi.net.au/stories-and-ideas/argentine-identity-films-lucrecia-martel/)\n\n## Adaptation and firsts\n\n**Zama** marked several departures in Martel's career. It was her first literary adaptation, her first period piece, her first film with a male protagonist, and her first feature not set in her native Salta.[11](https://harvardfilmarchive.org/public/upload/print/663be2a7b0c93.pdf) • [10](https://www.acmi.net.au/stories-and-ideas/argentine-identity-films-lucrecia-martel/) Her first three features, all set in Salta, examined a stagnant middle class against the backdrop of Argentina's recent history; *Zama* instead turns to the colonial past.[9](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/film-week-zama-makes-slow-jest-mouldering-colonial-mandarin)\n\nThe adaptation alters the source in several ways. Di Benedetto's novel is structured in three parts corresponding to the years 1790, 1794 and 1799; Martel's film forgoes any on-screen mention of these dates, marking the passage of time elliptically, through changes of governor and the physical transformation of Zama's face and body.[12](https://www.sensacine.com/peliculas/pelicula-221314/sensacine/) • [13](https://mubi.com/en/films/zama/critics-reviews) She also conflated characters and changed the ending.[14](https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/a-miserable-miracle) In her director's statement, Martel wrote that the film \"contains no historicist pretensions\"; she sought to submerge the viewer in a world that \"was devastated before it was ever encountered, and that therefore remains in delirium.\"[1](https://www.labiennale.org/en/cinema/2017/program-cinema-2017-press/lucrecia-martel-zama-0)\n\n## Production\n\nThe film is a large international co-production. The Venice festival program lists Argentina, Brazil, Spain, France, Mexico, the USA, the Netherlands and Portugal among the producing countries, and the Spanish-language academic record adds Lebanon and Switzerland to the list of financing sources.[1](https://www.labiennale.org/en/cinema/2017/program-cinema-2017-press/lucrecia-martel-zama-0) • [15](https://repositorio.uca.edu.ar/bitstream/123456789/8731/1/antonio-benedetto-lucrecia-martel.pdf) Production companies included Rei Cine (Argentina), Bananeira Filmes (Brazil) and El Deseo (Spain), the company of producer [Pedro Almodóvar](https://www.edgepedia.org/pedro-almodovar).[6](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2018/films/zama) • [16](https://bteampictures.es/zama/) Screen Daily counted 16 co-production companies involved, including El Deseo and Canana.[17](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/zama-venice-review/5121861.article)\n\n## Style: image and sound\n\nMartel's visual and sonic approach is central to the film's effect. Nearly every composition surprises with asymmetries and odd placements of figures, and the mise en scène is purposely disorienting.[13](https://mubi.com/en/films/zama/critics-reviews) The soundtrack is a collage of Spanish dialects and indigenous languages, and the sound design is disorienting enough that the Los Angeles Times review notes conversations are occasionally overpowered by ambient sound.[14](https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/a-miserable-miracle) • [3](https://www.americasquarterly.org/fulltextarticle/film-review-zama/) The dialogue mixes Spanish with Qom, Pilagá and Mbyá Guaraní.[4](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-zama-review-20180426-story.html)\n\nAn anachronistic musical choice stands out: the score draws on midcentury beach-pop recordings by Los Indios Tabajaras, sentimental Mexican exotica that reviewers read as a nod to the novel's 1956 publication date.[2](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/may/27/zama-review) • [14](https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/a-miserable-miracle) The indigenous characters' speech in the film draws on the history of the Guaycurú community, which Martel noted is now extinct in Argentina.[18](https://www.bfi.org.uk/interviews/lucrecia-martel-time-zama)\n\n## Themes and critical reading\n\nCritics have read the film as a critique of colonialism that avoids depicting the moment of conquest itself. The Guardian's review describes it as an exposé of [Eurocentrism](https://www.edgepedia.org/eurocentrism), interested in \"the traces of colonial violence\" visible in the behavior of the film's indigenous characters, and calls Martel's gaze \"a vivid, drily funny act of decolonisation.\"[2](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/may/27/zama-review) Americas Quarterly reads an early image of a water-averse fish fighting to stay alive as an analogy for the protagonist's precarious position, and the film more broadly as an allegory for the perils of Latin America's colonization.[3](https://www.americasquarterly.org/fulltextarticle/film-review-zama/)\n\nScholarly readings have emphasized the film's treatment of time and history. One analysis argues that Martel uses montage to denarrativize and demonumentalize the conventional narrative of history, opening a relationship with the past freed from historicist logic.[19](https://rhistoria.usach.cl/en/cinema-and-reverberation-zama-montage-and-history) Another notes that the film replaces linear progress with a circular, repetitive time closer to Indigenous Andean conceptions of temporality, while the edges of the frame carry a multitude of Indigenous and enslaved [Black people](https://www.edgepedia.org/black-people) around the supposedly powerful protagonist.[20](https://reframe.sussex.ac.uk/mediatico/2021/11/22/how-to-film-the-histories-of-the-new-world-re-envisioning-the-past-and-the-future-in-latin-american-contemporary-cinema/) A study of the film's sensory dimension, read alongside [Walter Benjamin](https://www.edgepedia.org/walter-benjamin)'s \"On the Concept of History\" and \"Naples\", argues that the film blurs social hierarchies through sexual mores that traverse stratifications, and positions slaves, mulattos, mestizos and indigenous people as dominant presences over European or Creole fragility.[21](https://imagofagia.asaeca.org/index.php/imagofagia/en/article/view/49)\n\n## Reception\n\nThe film premiered at Venice on 1 September 2017 and went on to screen at Toronto, New York and London in 2017 and [Rotterdam](https://www.edgepedia.org/rotterdam) in 2018.[22](https://www.nziff.co.nz/2018/archive/zama/) It won the KNF Award at International Film Festival Rotterdam 2018 and a Jury Mention at the Seville European Film Festival, was selected by the Argentine Film Academy to compete for the Oscar nomination for best non-English-language film, and was nominated for the 2018 Goya Award for best Iberoamerican film.[6](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2018/films/zama) • [23](https://www.casamerica.es/cine/zama) At Argentina's Premios Sur it won best film, director, actor (Daniel Giménez Cacho), editing, adapted screenplay, art direction, costume design, sound, cinematography, and makeup.[23](https://www.casamerica.es/cine/zama)\n\nIn the United States, Strand Releasing gave it a limited theatrical release on April 13, 2018, grossing $200.2K.[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/zama) Critical response was strongly positive: the Tomatometer stood at 96% from 113 reviews, while the audience Popcornmeter registered 58%, a gap reviewers themselves noted, describing a film that \"enchanted nearly all critics and sharply divided audiences.\"[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/zama) In 2022 the film ranked joint 196th in the Sight and Sound Greatest Films of All Time critics' poll.[8](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/50f2ab96-3b5d-5843-82ef-737a8c700c93/zama)\n\n## References\n\n1. [Lucrecia Martel – Zama, La Biennale di Venezia, Cinema program 2017](https://www.labiennale.org/en/cinema/2017/program-cinema-2017-press/lucrecia-martel-zama-0)\n2. [Simran Hans, \"Zama review – an exposé of Eurocentrism\", The Guardian, 27 May 2018](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/may/27/zama-review)\n3. [Carlos Aguilar, \"Film Review: Zama\", Americas Quarterly, 2 May 2018](https://www.americasquarterly.org/fulltextarticle/film-review-zama/)\n4. [Justin Chang, \"Review: Lucrecia Martel's 'Zama'\", Los Angeles Times, 26 April 2018](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-zama-review-20180426-story.html)\n5. [Zama, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/zama)\n6. [Zama, International Film Festival Rotterdam 2018](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2018/films/zama)\n7. [ZAMA, Fondazione Prada](https://www.fondazioneprada.org/project/zama/?lang=en)\n8. [Zama (2017), BFI](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/50f2ab96-3b5d-5843-82ef-737a8c700c93/zama)\n9. [Maria Delgado, \"Film of the week: Zama makes slow jest of a mouldering colonial mandarin\", Sight and Sound](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/film-week-zama-makes-slow-jest-mouldering-colonial-mandarin)\n10. [Joanna Di Mattia, \"Argentine identity in the films of Lucrecia Martel\", ACMI](https://www.acmi.net.au/stories-and-ideas/argentine-identity-films-lucrecia-martel/)\n11. [Zama, Harvard Film Archive program notes](https://harvardfilmarchive.org/public/upload/print/663be2a7b0c93.pdf)\n12. [Israel Paredes, crítica de Zama, SensaCine](https://www.sensacine.com/peliculas/pelicula-221314/sensacine/)\n13. [Zama (2017) critics reviews, MUBI](https://mubi.com/en/films/zama/critics-reviews)\n14. [Sam George Jackson, \"A Miserable Miracle: Lucrecia Martel's 'Zama'\", Los Angeles Review of Books](https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/a-miserable-miracle)\n15. [Antonio Di Benedetto por Lucrecia Martel: la adaptación de Zama, Universidad Católica Argentina](https://repositorio.uca.edu.ar/bitstream/123456789/8731/1/antonio-benedetto-lucrecia-martel.pdf)\n16. [Zama, BTeam Pictures](https://bteampictures.es/zama/)\n17. [Fionnuala Halligan, \"'Zama': Venice Review\", Screen Daily, 31 August 2017](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/zama-venice-review/5121861.article)\n18. [Lucrecia Martel on time and Zama, BFI interview](https://www.bfi.org.uk/interviews/lucrecia-martel-time-zama)\n19. [Sergio Villalobos Ruminott, \"Cinema and Reverberation: Zama, Montage and History\", Revista Historia Social y de las Mentalidades](https://rhistoria.usach.cl/en/cinema-and-reverberation-zama-montage-and-history)\n20. [\"How to Film the Histories of the New World\", Mediático, 22 November 2021](https://reframe.sussex.ac.uk/mediatico/2021/11/22/how-to-film-the-histories-of-the-new-world-re-envisioning-the-past-and-the-future-in-latin-american-contemporary-cinema/)\n21. [Guillermo Severiche, \"Experiencias sensoriales, porosidad y redención en Zama (2017)\", Imagofagia 22 (2020)](https://imagofagia.asaeca.org/index.php/imagofagia/en/article/view/49)\n22. [Zama, New Zealand International Film Festival 2018](https://www.nziff.co.nz/2018/archive/zama/)\n23. [Zama, Casa de América](https://www.casamerica.es/cine/zama)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 2015 to 2019 › Drama films 2017 and 2018*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/zama-2017-film", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/zama-2017-film.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Zama (2017 film)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/zama-2017-film. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Zama (2017 film)](https://www.edgepedia.org/zama-2017-film)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/zama-2017-film](https://www.edgepedia.org/zama-2017-film). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Zama (2017 film)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/zama-2017-film. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Zama is Lucrecia Martel's fourth feature, an adaptation of Antonio Di Benedetto's 1956 novel, premiering at Venice." }