09/09/2025 - One of Spain's highest-grossing filmmakers discusses aspects of his new blockbuster, a historical drama in which he dares to present a new image of the famous writer Miguel de Cervantes

(© Lucia Faraig)

The Toronto Film Festival will host the world premiere of Alejandro Amenábar's eagerly anticipated new film in its Special Presentations section. Amenábar is a director whose projects almost invariably become box office successes. His latest work, which he also wrote, is entitled The Captive [+see also:
trailer
interview: Alejandro Amenábar
film profile]. A Spanish-Italian period co-production, it tells the story of the months that a young Miguel de Cervantes spent imprisoned in Algiers. Ahead of the film's Spanish release on 12 September, distributed by Buena Vista International, we spoke with the 2005 Oscar winner for Best International Feature Film for The Sea Inside [+see also:
trailer
film profile].

Cineuropa: Is this one of your projects that touches you most personally?
Alejandro Amenábar: It's the story of someone who loves telling stories and who seeks freedom at any cost, above all through imagination. Add to that a conflict with his sexual orientation, and it's hard not to get caught up in this project, even to the point of obsession.

Do fantasy, storytelling and narratives (written, audiovisual, etc.) save us from reality?
Of course. I believe that’s true across almost all cultures and at every level. We need to reinvent reality, sometimes to find meaning and understand ourselves, at other times simply to escape tedium or enrich our lives. Cinema captivated me as a teenager and became my lifelong companion. I’m a filmmaker, but first and foremost I’m a viewer. I love being told a good story.

At this stage in your career, do you feel comfortable making period films with elaborate sets and lots of extras?
Stories sometimes take you to spaces as confined as a coffin or as vast as Rome 2,000 years ago. I feel comfortable working on very different projects, although it’s true that I’ve explored historical cinema quite extensively. What I always try to do hold onto is the intimate dimension: the story, with a lowercase “s”, of the characters.

Can cinema rewrite history as we know it, or does it invite us to reinterpret it?
Cinema has enormous power to inform, to broaden our perspective on things we took for granted, to stir our consciences — and it can do so through entertainment and emotional connection. What more could you ask for?

In your opinion, is The Captive a prison film, a romantic film, a fantasy film, or all of the above... and more?
It’s in that combination of themes and styles that I felt we could create a very special film. It’s also the first film, in a thirty-year career, where I’ve addressed sexual identity, specifically homosexuality, whether through a character or by evoking the unusual homoeroticism that permeated the city of Algiers in the 16th century. And all thanks to Cervantes — who would have thought?

How much of the plot is based on real events, and how much on fiction?
A work of fiction is always just that: fiction, and as such it is full of dramatic licence. Even with a documentary, narrative choices and point of view play a part. That said, I think the film contains far more real or plausible elements than audiences might expect, given Cervantes’ extraordinary experience. As we announced in the advertising slogan: “The author of Don Quixote left an incredible story untold: his own.”

How do you expect the public to react to the film's new take on a figure as revered as Miguel de Cervantes?
Honestly, I hope they’re excited to discover not only a great storyteller, but also a human being, someone who is empathetic, courageous, charismatic, radiant and humorous, someone who is capable of seducing even his captor. I’m convinced that must have been true for the captive who attempted to escape from prison four times, involving many of his companions, and who managed to save his life and theirs.

Do you think that some viewers will return to Cervantes’ work (and read Don Quixote de la Mancha) after seeing the film?
That wasn’t my aim when making the film. As I said, what drew me to the project was exploring the person rather than the literary myth. But if this film inspires more people to read and engage with his work, so much the better.

(Translated from Spanish)