I still haven’t really found my way into fully grasping slow cinema, and Lav Diaz’s ‘Magellan’ continues to revel in the qualities of that cinematic mode. With the gorgeous cinematography of Artur Tort, ‘Magellan’ is filled with lush imagery and exquisite framing that forces us to look at nature, its sheer beauty, and then juxtapose it with the violence of colonization. I find that Diaz’s work is very cerebral, something that demands your attention and immersion; and this film has a thin narrative (which is my bailiwick), leaving all of the work that we want from the story for the image to deliver. 

On the surface, the film follows Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan (Gael Garcia Bernal) coming back to Portugal after his participation in the capture of Malacca, where he buys a Filipino slave whom he calls Enrique (Amado Arjay Babon). Our protagonist tries to convince the king to allow him to circumnavigate the globe to find a different route to Asia in order to find new trade routes without competition.

When his proposal is rejected, he brings this to Spain who then gives him a ship to find that new pathway to the unconquered lands. At sea, he must face storms, mutiny, and even starvation but soon they arrive on the shores of Cebu. 

We all know what happens next.

As straightforward as this narrative seems, Diaz takes his usual distance from his subjects, allowing his camera to contextualize his characters in the vastness of their ambitions and their place in the world. We don’t even get to see Gael Garcia Bernal’s face until one hour into the film (I know, I checked) when he gets his first close-up. At the distance that he takes, we see these images like paintings, depicting moments of great import – the capture of Malacca, the mutiny on the ships, the arrival at Cebu, the blood compact between Magellan and Raja Humabon (Ronnie Lazaro) – we witness its epic scale, but I feel unable to grasp what he’s trying to say. 

He makes no hero of Magellan. We see him marry his nurse (Angela Avezedo) and leave for his expedition while she is pregnant. He sentences two of his crew to death after being caught in a homosexual affair below deck. In the shores of Cebu, he quickly converts natives into Christians and destroys their idols and wooden statues of their gods. But never does he explore his hero’s interiority.

We have long, still shots of Magellan in rumination – about what exactly, we do not know – and this is juxtaposed by stunning shots of the nature that surrounds him in his voyage. Maybe colonization is a force as powerful as nature, which makes the pushback of the Filipinos at the end of act three its own show of force.

Still, this is Magellan’s story, not the Philippines’. Enrique barely gets to have a moment for himself until his own participation is revealed at the end of the film through a voice over. No contrast or juxtaposition between these two characters that could somehow contextualize Diaz’s stand about these events in the film.

While I’m left emotionally empty after watching the movie, I have to give kudos to how beautifully shot ‘Magellan’ is. Diaz’s mise-en-scène, paired with Artur Tort’s exquisite handling of light and color, draws you into the metaphysical nature of Diaz’s films. It forces you to really look and what I saw was the violence of colonization and Magellan’s own ambitions that led to his own demise. It’s undeniably thought-provoking, but at 160 minutes, and leaving me feeling emotionally blank, I feel it’s not my favourite of Diaz’s works.

My Rating:

Lav Diaz’s Magellan is still showing in cinemas. Don’t miss the chance to experience it on the big screen, check showtimes and get your tickets here.