As subaltern studies scholars have noted, the attempt to excavate and imagine the inner lives of those absent from the historical record has its own limitations—it often ends up being a projection of our liberal-humanist fantasies about the past, filtered through the biases and prejudices and desires of the historian or writer working in the present day. We can’t know what we don’t know, but we can acknowledge that what we know isn’t all that was.
— Devika Girish (Reverse Shot)
Synopsis: In a remote South American colony in the late 18th century, officer Zama of the Spanish crown waits in vain for a transfer to a more prestigious location. He suffers small humiliations and petty politicking as he increasingly succumbs to lust and paranoia.