Central Analysis of the Film Zama

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Film Analysis: Zama
The central argument in the text is that human experience emerges through the senses. The text argues that human bodies are not limited to being visible objects (physicality) in today's image-saturated culture, but they extend to sense-making visual objects. The text by Vivian Sobchack develops this argument through an evaluation of cinematic technology, which the author argues does not exist in isolation from the ensuing cultural context. Sobchack particularly argues that technology never gets to its material specificity and function in a neutral context and effect (137). Instead, social, political, and economic context and its materiality, technology is informed by social, political, and economic context (Sobchack 137). This argument is the beginning of the idea of mind/body split, which is explicitly discussed in the text. This idea informs the central idea of human experiences emerging through sense. It demonstrates that the process of “making human sense” requires collaboration between senses and thoughts in humans. This split between mind/and body is also encompassed in the film Zama by Lucrecia Martel. The split is evident in the development of the main protagonist Diego de Zama whose mind wishes for a transfer to Lerma for a reunion with his wife and children. Still, his body is stuck in a remote South American Spanish Empire. As a Corregidor of his region, Zama spends his time dealing with bureaucratic matters, but his mind constantly anticipates his transfer to Lerma.
Colonialism is the historical issue that is brought into focus in the film. The narrative in the film addresses this historical issue in a somehow comical way. The director presents Zama as an absurdist figure by casting dryly comedic aspects of the character in various scenes. In classical colonialism, one would expect that functionaries be individuals from the colonizer’s background. This is not the case in Zama’s character. Don Diego is born in South America but was a colonizer for the Spanish government, where he served as a functionary in the magistrate post (Lucrecia). Zama is treated as a comical figure by subordinates, colleagues, and superiors. For example, the noblewoman he lusts for, Luc...