Few tales have influenced the canon of Western storytelling greater than Miguel de Cervantes’ “Don Quixote,” however its writer has by no means obtained his personal second within the cinematic highlight. That adjustments this fall with Alejandro Amenábar’s new movie “The Captive,” which follows Cervantes as a 28-year-old sailor within the Spanish Navy who discovers his love of storytelling whereas confined as a prisoner of conflict. The movie is ready to have its world premiere on the Toronto Worldwide Movie Competition, and IndieWire can solely reveal its new trailer.
An official synopsis for the movie reads: “1575 — Algiers, Miguel de Cervantes (Julio Peña), a wounded 28-year-old Spanish Navy soldier, is held prisoner by Ottoman corsairs. A merciless loss of life awaits him ought to his countrymen fail to pay his ransom quickly; however throughout the confines of his cell, Cervantes discovers a stunning refuge — the artwork of storytelling. Crafted from resilience and hope, his tales enthrall his fellow captives, and seize the eye of Hasan (Alessandro Borghi), the enigmatic and feared Bey of Algiers, igniting a secret affinity between captor and captive. Suspicions rise amidst rising tensions within the metropolis, and Cervantes, pushed by an unwavering sense of optimism, devises a daring plan to flee.”
“The Captive” is written and directed by Alejandro Amenábar. The movie stars Julio Peña, Alessandro Borghi, Miguel Rellán, Fernando Tejero, Luis Callejo, José Manuel Poga, Roberto Álamo, Albert Salazar, Juanma Muniagurria, César Sarachu, and Jorge Asín.
“The Captive” marks Amenábar’s eleventh characteristic movie as a director and his first since 2019’s “Whereas at Warfare.” That movie seems to share some DNA with “The Captive,” as they each discover how traumatic occasions in Spanish historical past formed the lives of one of many nation’s most celebrated intellectuals, with “Whereas at Warfare” exploring the lifetime of author and thinker Miguel de Unamuno in the course of the Spanish Civil Warfare. The Chilean-Spanish director has labored in quite a lot of genres over the course of his three-decade profession, and IndieWire’s David Ehrlich made the case in 2023 that his movie “The Others” deserves to be remembered as certainly one of cinema’s greatest ghost tales.
Watch the trailer for “The Captive,” an IndieWire unique, beneath.
