“I wish there were 50 movies about the conquest,” director Salvador Carrasco told the Los Angeles Times when his 1998 film, La Otra Conquista , was rereleased in 2007—semi-coincidentally, this was soon after Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto put a colossal budget into the story of the Spanish and the Mesoamericans, and semi-coincidentally, that turned out to be an opportunity for a whole new audience to examine Carrasco’s smoldering classic. Conquista didn’t have Apocalypto ’s resources, but it looks like an old-school epic and attacks the story of an Aztec boy suddenly submerged into Spanish Christianity with heart, precision and courage. If there were 50 movies about the conquest, this would be the one to watch first.
La Otra Conquista screens as part of the Cine Alternativo Latin Film Fest at the Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, 117 N. Sycamore, Santa Ana, (714) 667-1517; www.occa.org. 7:30 p.m. Free.
Wed., Jan. 5, 7:30 p.m., 2011
