Agora (2009)

English title: Mists of Time

Fictionalized biography of Hypatia of Alexandria (b. c350-70; d. 414), a mathematician and a teacher. Conflicts among Christians, Jews and Pagans are frequent in that city and bring about -- in this fictional version -- the destruction of the famous library. Hypatia gets caught in the middle of that conflict due to her friendship with Alexandria's mayor.

Ambitious yet amorphous historical fiction. Mostly it plays very loose with historical facts, although the events which led to Hypatia's death seem to follow the consensual historiography more closely. The film lacks something essential: the establishment of a bond between the viewer and its characters. The main lesson it teaches is that multicultural societies are doomed to self-destruct. However, that gets a little submerged under a paean to the (mostly imaginary) scientific achievements of the protagonist.

Rating: 33