Agora

Alejandro Amenábar directed Agora (Ágora), a Spanish-produced, English-language historical drama from 2009, and wrote it with Mateo Gil. A biopic told through historical fiction, it is set in Roman-ruled Alexandria from 391 AD and examines religion and science as polytheism declines and the Empire turns Christian. The title comes from the agora, the public gathering place of ancient Greek cities. It opened in Spain on October 9, 2009 and became that country's highest-grossing film of the year.

Rachel Weisz plays Hypatia, a late fourth-century mathematician, philosopher and astronomer who probes the flaws of the geocentric model and the heliocentric one that challenges it. As tension among pagans, Jews and the rising Christians turns violent around her, she tries to save the learning of classical antiquity from destruction. Max Minghella plays Davus, her father's slave, and Oscar Isaac her student Orestes, later the city's prefect. Michael Lonsdale and Ashraf Barhom are also in the cast.

Fernando Bovaira produced the film, shot in Malta from March to June 2008, with Justin Pollard as historical adviser. It screened out of competition at Cannes in 2009. In Spain it won seven Goya Awards, including Best Original Screenplay, and it took the Sloan Foundation prize at the Hamptons festival. It was criticised for historical inaccuracies.