What happens when a society casts aside reason and intellectualism in favor of superstition, willful ignorance, and religious extremism? When books are burned and learning derided and freethought squashed? History has a very pointed lesson for us in 2010’s Agora, one of my favorite movies of recent decades and one that has been strangely missing from streaming services. So I was delighted to discover recently that it is newly streaming free on Prime for subscribers in the US (and is also available to rent or buy).
This semifictionalized tale of feminist icon Hypatia (Rachel Weisz) places the philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician at a cultural crossroads for the Roman Empire in her city of Alexandria, Egypt, as upstart death-cult Christians confront mainstream, practical pagans like her. Politics and religion are here becoming enmeshed in ways that are incredibly dangerous to a society that is, in many aspects, highly enlightened.
The parallels here for today are striking, underscored by writer-director Alejandro Amenábar’s occasional use of imagery we typically expect more from a science fiction film than a historical one. It makes Agora feel very modern and very pertinent.
(Yes, that’s Oscar Isaac in the image above, as Orestes, a student and suitor of Hypatia. It’s one of his earliest screen appearances.)
US: stream on Prime; rent/buy on Prime and Apple TV
UK: not streaming anywhere, alas, but available on DVD
See Agora at Letterboxd for more viewing options, including in all other global regions.
