<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><HTML><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Times" FAMILY="SERIF" SIZE="2">From its reputation, I was much looking forward to seeing this film,<BR>
made in Mexico, released in only a few cities of the Southwestern USA.<BR>
<BR>
It is in Spanish and in Nahua, with English subtitles and some<BR>
Spanish subtitles also during Nahua portions.<BR>
<BR>
I had heard it presents the conquest from the point of view of an Aztec<BR>
priest,<BR>
maneuvering simultaneously to keep his own people in their traditions,<BR>
and to deal with the Spanish.<BR>
<BR>
I got a copy from Amazon.com, and took it to the Wayeb meetings<BR>
of the European Mayanists, the first week of December in Geneva.<BR>
We had a showing of the film there.<BR>
<BR>
There is a bit of what I had understood the film to be by reputation.<BR>
But it is more a study of the psychology of one Friar and one Aztec priest<BR>
who is a captive in a monastery, supposedly being converted, but explicit<BR>
that the new religion can have his body, never his soul. <BR>
Not much on the Aztec priest or the Nahua people as active agents<BR>
successfully manipulating the Spanish within the limits of the kinds of<BR>
power they had available to them.<BR>
No large and complex issues of social structure, no large scenes,<BR>
not much about the management of daily lives.<BR>
<BR>
The film I had imagined still remains to be made, it is still a distant goal.<BR>
The audience for the showing in Geneva seemed to feel that<BR>
"The Other Conquest" still has quite a lot of stereotyping. <BR>
<BR>
One Mexican woman commented that it was like other films made by<BR>
Mexican directors. When I asked if she meant<BR>
a bit like Diego Rivera murals, the best analogy I could think of to what<BR>
she might be referring to, she affirmed that could be a good analogy.<BR>
Though it is not as complex or great as those murals.<BR>
<BR>
I don't feel the need to see it again. But the two main characters are<BR>
both sympathetic, and it is worth seeing once at least, to see what one<BR>
director has managed to do and has not managed to do.<BR>
<BR>
It may be one of a very few films to feature the Nahua language so<BR>
extensively.<BR>
<BR>
Lloyd Anderson<BR>
Ecological Linguistics<BR>
PO Box 15156<BR>
Washington DC 20003<BR>
ecoling@aol.com<BR>
202-547-7683</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Geneva" FAMILY="SANSSERIF" SIZE="2"><BR>
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