Zama (2017)

In her first feature since 2008’s The Headless Woman, Lucrecia Martel creates a memorable exploration of personal malaise. Adapting Antonio Di Benedetto’s existential novel, it follows Don Diego de Zama (Daniel Giménez Cacho), a minor officer in an unnamed colony of the 18th-century Spanish crown, desperate to return to his family. As his request is repeatedly delayed by red tape, Martel charts his progressive decline with opulent visuals and a multi-layered soundscape.