Magellan

Early in the 16th century, Magellan (García Bernal) falls out with the Portuguese king. He instead turns to the Spanish Crown to fund an expedition to the faraway Spice Islands, and bids his wife Beatriz farewell. At sea with his crew, violence, sabotage, mutiny and more unfurl, captured in stark, stunning tableaux. When Magellan at last reaches the Philippines, he becomes set on conquest and converting the Indigenous people to Christianity, but is met with powerful defiance. Seen from Diaz’s forcefully anticolonial gaze, Magellan is no hero. Shot in brilliant colour and featuring a major star in Bernal, it’s an inviting point of entry to this contemporary master’s body of work, whilst being no less compromising than his usual oeuvre.