Alejandro Amenábar
Agora

From the very start, Christians organized themselves in a way that any harm inflicted upon them would prove counterproductive in stopping the spread of the Lord's word. This is evidenced by the fact that the Romans, despite centuries of persecution, eventually had to make Christianity the official language of the empire.

The film in question is set in Alexandria, Egypt, near the Agora, where the clash between the Serapis devotees and Christians took place, a story never before brought to cinema. From this viewpoint, Amenábar deserves credit for presenting a historically original subject, that of the philosopher Hypatia, daughter of Theon, portrayed by Rachel Weisz.

The choice of the leading actress made me frown from the first scene, not because she is unattractive, but precisely because she looks like a Miss Italy winner and I don't believe she was the most suitable to portray the role of a very intelligent mathematician and astronomer. Hypatia was probably both beautiful and intelligent, but the latter attribute needed to be supported by a script of higher quality than the one present in Agora, furthermore, as I mentioned, Weisz resembles an ancient Greek very little. 

Hypatia gives lectures on gravity, the motion of celestial bodies, etc., but she does so in a language that is far too elementary. From this perspective, it must be said that none of this woman's writings have survived, so we can almost entirely conjecture about her deductions and discoveries.

The present sentimentality clashes a bit with the scholarly and erudite environment where she taught, and the latter lacks depth and credibility, a factor not felt too much because the film decides to focus predominantly on the turmoil caused by the arrogance of the Christians led by the fanatic bishop Cyril and their intolerance of any other cult. We immediately see the zealot Ammonius who, in his first appearance, delights us with a theological clash that proves inconclusive in words, so he decides to walk through flames "protected by his God" and, after accomplishing this feat, throws his rival from the other religion into them. Although it's not a nice thing to do, I must say that if this happened regularly on TV shows like Anno Zero, it would be almost worth paying the license fee.

The pagan community of Alexandria, angered by the way the Gods are insulted by the Christians, decides to buy wholesale swords and go break the followers of Jesus. At first, it seems to go well: they arrive in the square, kill a few, and put the others to flight, but soon the situation reverses, and the pagans are forced into a strategic retreat while Hypatia's father, Theon, ends up murdered by his slave who had converted to the one true faith.

Our heroes barricade themselves inside the Serapeum to save themselves from the advancing Christian horde, and I won't tell you the rest of the film because otherwise, I would spoil your pleasure. I will only add that where I come from, in Sicily, there's an ancient Catanese saying that goes: "Mbare, tu u sai cu su i cristiani." Hypatia in the story wants to maintain a neutral attitude, trying in every way to protect her students, but she will still meet a bad end and go down in history as a martyr of paganism.

The budget available to the director was considerable, in fact, the reconstruction of the city is quite good. As I already mentioned, the film doesn't shine for its screenplay; from a significant point of view, it aims to condemn the immense arrogance of monotheistic cults against freedom of thought. The subject is original, but the theme and moral are much less so. Nevertheless, it can be watched with pleasure, but it could have been set on a higher level since there could have been a greater focus on philosophical, mathematical, and astronomical subjects (which are present nonetheless). I wasn't demanding a Rossellini masterpiece like Socrate, but something a bit deeper.

To conclude, be aware that that bloodthirsty fanatic Cyril was made a saint by the church. This film also came out with a certain delay in Italy, but the director himself dismissed the rumor that it was due to obstacles from the Vatican.

In conclusion: "Peace on earth to men of good will."