From the director of the Academy Award-winning biopic The Sea Inside comes a rousing historical epic recreating the early religious conflicts of fourth-century Alexandria, Egypt. The film boasts a smouldering turn by Rachel Weisz, who has evinced greater and greater depth with each new role. Playing the legendary philosopher and mathematician Hypatia, she delivers a commanding performance of intelligence and strength of will.
Beginning in AD 369, tensions between pagans and Christians in Egypt reach a new high, setting the stage for an inevitable clash of loyalties. Initially, in the famed Alexandria library compound where pupils of all faiths gather to learn under the guidance of Hypatia, these pressures are set aside. While she conducts lessons in mathematics and astronomy, Hypatia privately tackles the riddle of Ptolemy's theory of the solar system and its planetary orbits.
Soon, however, conflict erupts as the pagans attack the Christians. Though the massacre leaves many Christians dead, the pagans nonetheless find themselves outnumbered and barricade themselves inside the library for safety. Hypatia is among those trapped, and her protection becomes the primary concern of her pupil Orestes (Oscar Isaac) and her slave Davus (Max Minghella), both of whom are deeply in love with her. This love triangle is put to test under the weight of the city's violent social upheaval. In the whirlwind of chaos and bloodshed, the three are inevitability separated.
Working on a grand scale with great confidence, Amenábar follows his characters through epochal changes. Christianity sweeps across Alexandria not just as a force of enlightenment but also simply as force. As Davus falls under the sway of extremism and Orestes struggles with his new faith, Agora takes up big themes of religion and allegiance, and how violence can enforce both. Driven by a questing intelligence, this film dramatizes ideas that are as relevant today as they were in Hypatia's lifetime.
Alejandro Amenábar is a writer, director and composer born in Santiago, Chile. His feature films are
Thesis (96),
Open Your Eyes (99), which was remade in 2001 by Cameron Crowe under the title
Vanilla Sky,
The Others (01),
The Sea Inside (04), which won the Academy Award® for best foreign-language film, and
Agora (09).