‘Zama’ is an Elusive, Visually Wondrous Return for Lucrecia Martel thefilmstage.com /reviews/zama-review-lucrecia-martel-venice/ 03/09/2017
Zama Venice 2017 Review Independent; 115 minutes Director: Lucrecia Martel
Written by Zhuo-Ning Su on September 2, 2017
You don’t make La Ciénaga, The Holy Girl, and The Headless Woman in a row without winning accolades and a passionate following the world over. As such, the anticipation level for Argentinian director Lucrecia Martel’s fourth feature and first in nearly a decade is understandably high. When Zama was denied a Cannes slot back in May, people assumed it was a blameless case of conflict of interest, as competition jury president Pedro Almodóvar is also a producer of the film. When the Venice Film Festival subsequently selected the long-awaited picture but put it in the less prestigious out-of-competition section, however, eyebrows were raised with palpable outrage – especially considering the fact that among the 21-title strong competition line-up, only one film comes from a female filmmaker. Well, now that we’ve seen it, the festival programmers’ reservations seem easier to understand.
1/3