What can I say about this film really. In a weird way it reminds of Wes Anderson in that he’s got a really cool control over his filmmaking, and it feels like the same here. Only his stuff is more “typical indie” and “melodramatic”. Instead this is more detached, and given the story, the better for it.
I’ll quote this IMDB summary as it doesn’t spell out the time period it takes place in so probably gives you a better initial idea!: ‘Based on the novel by Antonio Di Benedetto written in 1956, on Don Diego de Zama, a Spanish officer of the seventeenth century settled in Asunción, who awaits his transfer to Buenos Aires.’
And definitely, the officer, Don Diego de Zama, played by Daniel Gimenez Cacho, is front-and-centre. It feels like not much happens and given the detached style of filmmaking, we’re kinda forced to think about things for ourselves. But Cacho does brilliantly, and as an antidote to standard English films we get, I think this works great.
Mad About Movies 