THE STORY – In 1575 Algiers, a young soldier named Miguel de Cervantes is held for ransom — unaware he’s on the path to becoming one of history’s greatest storytellers. This bold, visually stunning film is a reimagining of the true story behind Cervantes’ transformation.
THE CAST – Julio Peña Fernández, Alessandro Borghi, Miguel Rellán, & Fernando Tejero
THE TEAM – Alejandro Amenábar (Director/Writer) & Alex Cannon (Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 134 Minutes
One of the more curious side notes of literary history is the imprisonment of Miguel de Cervantes. The Spaniard was captured and held for ransom by Ottoman corsairs in 1575, after legendarily suffering wounds that rendered his left arm useless at the Battle of Lepanto. After about five years in captivity in the cave of Medrano, he was freed at long last by the Trinitarians, a religious charity that raised money to pay ransoms for Christian captives. Not much is known about what happened to him there, but during this period, he began writing his most famous work, “Don Quixote.” Finally published in 1605, “Don Quixote” has since become one of the best-selling novels of all time, as well as one of the most influential. Scholars refer to it as the first modern novel, in part because of how widely read it has been ever since its first printing. “The Captive,” the new film from Alejandro Amenábar, presents a vision of what Cervantes’s life may have been like during his captivity. While those unfamiliar with “Don Quixote” likely won’t come away from the film with any deeper insight into the novel’s history or the influences that inspired it, the film offers a compelling narrative about the act of storytelling and how it can offer hope in the darkest times.
When Cervantes (Julio Peña Fernández) is sold to the Bajá of Algiers, Hassan (Alessandro Borghi), he attempts to mitigate his circumstance by whipping out papers proving his importance. Said papers, though, aren’t unique to him, and he has no one at home who can afford the ransom. Believing that he really is important, Hassan demands a higher price for him than the Trinitarians can pay. Stuck in captivity and painfully aware of the deadly fate that awaits him if he isn’t rescued, Cervantes starts telling stories to his fellow captives, at first to keep their spirits up and then to satiate their hunger for more. When Hassan becomes aware of the storyteller, he’s angry at first, then intrigued. He wants to know the end of Cervantes’s story, but doesn’t like it when it comes. Cervantes hooks him, though, and before long, he’s giving private readings to Hassan and receiving time outside the compound walls as payment. With his time outside, Cervantes starts to set a plan in motion for an escape, but when gossip starts to spread among the captives, will his plans stay secret?
On a scene-by-scene basis, “The Captive” is incredibly compelling. Amenábar writes his characters with sharp insight, creating vivid portraits with minimal screentime, and letting the relationships between characters do most of the story’s heavy lifting. Even the captives aren’t aligned on everything, arguing about religion, the nature of their captivity, and Cervantes’s elevated status among them. These dialogues and character relationships flesh out the film’s world, detailing these characters’ lives and what is most important to them in a way that speaks to the setting’s very specific version of Christianity.
The relationship between Hassan and Cervantes is even more dynamic and complex. Hassan was a former prisoner who renounced his Christianity to save himself and rise the social ladder, and he tries to get Cervantes to do the same. Peña and Borghi have white-hot chemistry that’s equally antagonistic and sexually-charged, making for an irresistible clash of wills wrapped up in a game of seduction. Hassan acts as the devil on Cervantes’s shoulder, with Borghi snarling like a hungry tiger while listening to his stories. Peña has a tricky role – every character sees Cervantes as something different, like he’s a mirror reflecting something of themselves back at them. Peña doesn’t play him as a blank slate, though. He’s full of fire, whether telling stories, plotting his great escape, or listening to the eldest prisoner, who in part inspires him to start telling stories in the first place. The film needs a strong center to work, and Peña provides that with charismatic ease.
While the characters, themes, and basic plot are all compelling, something holds it back from being great. Perhaps Amenábar’s direction is a bit too polished, sanding away the rough edges of the captives’ situation in favor of the sheen of prestige historical dramas. Perhaps the allusions to “Don Quixote” are too obvious (the Trinitarians look like exact matches for the Man of La Mancha and his sidekick, Sancho Panza), and the thematic connections to the novel are too few. While “The Captive” isn’t about “Don Quixote,” it covers the events that led to its writing, and there’s precious little presented that would believably cause Cervantes to write these characters in this story. However, as both a story about the magic of telling stories and a morality play about national identity and religious persecution, it’s a handsomely made, compulsively watchable film.
