In the 16th century, Ferdinand Magellan, a young and ambitious Portuguese navigator, rebels against the power of the King of Portugal, who doesn’t support his dream of discovering the world, and persuades the Spanish monarchy to fund his bold expedition to the fabled lands of the East.
Let’s acknowledge the elephant in the room: running under three hours, this is already Lav Diaz’s shortest film yet, but it really makes it more accessible. For those coming into Magellan as their first Diaz film, a huge amount of adjustment will be required. It’s definitely not for everybody. Perhaps yawning and a sense of boredom are inescapable, but so are the themes Diaz aims to depict. After the adjustment period, the film treads well to the point that one might ironically wish it were even longer.
Here, Diaz forcefully enlists us on a grim journey and allows ample time during the film for immediate contemplation. He’s not particularly interested in merely depicting the story you read in a paragraph back in the day.
Instead, he wants you to feel that there were real people and institutions involved and that greed was huge part of it. Real people and institutions that decided the fate of others. Real people who experienced terrible things. No huge action scenes are required, even if that may partly be due to budget constraints.
Like, let’s say, Killers of the Flower Moon, certain angles have their limits and Magellan is no exception. Yet one can’t deny that Lav Diaz’s latest work leaves you lingering with disheartening thoughts. It’s as if death has truly come to us. For that, this work is triumphant. 4/5 ⭐️
