The most recent project from Fillipino writer/director Lav Diaz, Magellan tells the story of Ferdinand Magellan (Gael Garcia Bernal) from the conquest of Malacca to his death in the Philippines during the first circumnavigation of the globe.

Its most salient feature is that it's not the spectacular historical epic you might imagine from that basic summary. It's very much slow cinema, with minimal camera movement and long takes. It's also a film about war and colonization with zero onscreen violence; we see the macabre aftermath of battles but not the battles themselves.

It's a fascinating, somewhat counterintuitive mix of style and subject matter that really worked for me, and I'm interested in other takes on it.