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The Captive

Screening at the Spanish and Latin American Film Festival, Alejandro Amenabar's first film since 2019 is a mildly controversial take on the 5-year captivity of legendary Spanish author, Miguel de Cervantes. We begin the film as Cervantes is led into a dusty courtyard in Algiers, along with many other kidnappees. Before he can be sold as a slave, or sliced up for insubordination, he presents a letter from the Spanish court, signalling that perhaps it's better he be kept as a hostage for ransom.

The film takes a bit of time to get rolling from here but when it does it settles into a clever mix of melodrama and weighty ideas. Cervantes, with his weak left arm acting like an acting crutch, slowly becomes the cheerleader of the prisoners, writing his stories in the air, only stopping when he temporarily runs light on material.

The story takes a hurdle when the Bey, a high-ranking provincial governor (Alessandro Borghi) overhears the stories told in the courtyard and summons Cervantes (Julio Peña) to his chambers. The ensuing relationship between these two moody lookers crackles with tension, and not just the murderous type. Does the Bey want to kill him or shag him, or both?

There's been a smattering of chat regarding writer/director Amenabar's decision to have Cervantes get it on with another dude. The much storied history of the author doesn't suggest this side to him but to my mind, there's nothing wrong with exploring this narratively. Maybe Amenabar's sexuality played a part in him choosing to go this way with the film, and fair dues, it's just another angle to take.

The themes in El Cautivo (the Spanish title) are muchos. Betrayal, religious freedom and intolerance, Ottoman politics, confessions, self-honesty, the importance of storytelling, sexuality, and the use of the word 'abjure' more than I've ever heard it before (speaking of being honest, I had to double check the definition).

The film looks great, with the Castle-Fortress of Santa Pola, near Alicante in southern Spain, standing in for the Bey's palace in Algiers. The costuming reeks of style and Cervantes himself is made to look very much like Joseph Fiennes in Shakespeare in Love. The most famous Cervantes characters, Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, appear in the film as wandering priests raising funds for the repatriation of Christians, and there are probably other noted characters scattered throughout that I'm ignorant of.

Amenabar scored a fantastic hat-trick in the late 90s/early 2000s with Open Your Eyes, The Others and The Sea Inside, so he certainly knows how to deliver a story. This isn't quite up to the mark of those earlier films but it's very good nonetheless.

The Captive is showing as part of the Spanish and Latin American Film Festival around Australia from June 10th to July 12th.

See also:

A recent film about an author's motivation is Chloe Zhao's Hamnet (2025), and for me, Amenabar's best film is the brilliant but very sad, The Sea Inside (2004).

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