Martel ’s fourth feature film '' Zama '' premiered at the Venice International Film Festival in August 2017 . An adaptation of Antonio di Benedetto ’s 1956 novel of the same name , it narrates the tragic story of Don Diego de Zama , a Spanish colonial functionary stationed in Asunción , Paraguay who waits , in vain , for his superiors to authorize his return home to his wife and family . It was an international co-production between eight countries : Argentina , Brazil , Spain , Mexico , France , the U.S. , the Netherlands , and Portugal , with stars like Pedro Almodóvar , Gael García Bernal , and Danny Glover among its long list of producers . It went on to screen at the Toronto International Film Festival and New York Film Festival and received widespread acclaim from critics . Mexican news magazine '' Gatopardo '' wrote of the film , “ Like the other characters of Lucrecia Martel , only now in the late eighteenth century , Diego de Zama is unable to take charge of his own life ; his fate is left in the hands of others . The identity that he has imposed on himself and that others have imposed on him is his prison . ” '' Rolling Stone '' of Argentina wrote , “ '' Zama '' is not an easy bone to crack . Martel delivers her most abstract , most ungraspable , most mysterious creation yet . ” British newspaper '' The Guardian '' wrote of the film , “ I hope Martel wo n’t have to wait a further nine years before she makes her next film . She ’s too good a director to be sat on the sidelines for long and '' Zama '' may just be her left-field masterpiece ; a picture that ’s antic , sensual and strange , with a top-note of menace and a malarial air . ” The film was chosen to represent Argentina in the Oscar and Goya Awards , the latter of which it received the nomination for Best Spanish Language Foreign Film
Toronto International Film Festival
2017 Toronto International Film Festival
Lucrecia Martel