‘The Indes’ Venice Review: A Mesmerizing and Savage Historical Odyssey

Inspired by a true story, this period drama takes an oblique approach to a historical event, following the journey of a young Spanish nobleman who, in the 17th century, traveled to France to deliver a portrait of the Spanish Infanta to the young King Louis XIV. The idea was that the king would become acquainted with his future bride through the painting, paving the way for an alliance between the two crowns. Symbolic as the gesture may have been, it served a crucial political and commercial purpose: uniting the Spanish and French monarchies and sealing peace after years of war between the two kingdoms.

Painted by Diego Velázquez in 1652, the now-famous portrait of María Teresa of Austria was transported overland by a small group traveling between the two countries while military conflicts still raged across the region. Alejandro (Théo Urtubey), the very young Spanish noble entrusted with the mission, embarks on the journey with all the arrogance and self-assurance his rank affords him, accompanied by two French soldiers (Raphaël Thiéry and Lazare Minoungou), one of whom is mute. But as the days pass, encounters with remote communities, clashes with warring factions, and the sheer physical toll of the expedition gradually turn the journey into something increasingly harsh, unbearable, and violent.

What The Indes explores is, on one level, the gradual awakening of this arrogant young aristocrat, captivated by fantasies of the New World, as he comes face to face with the brutality of life beyond palaces and noble courts. Running parallel to that personal journey is the portrait of a civilization in transition, with the Middle Ages giving way to sweeping political, economic, and scientific change. At its core, however, the film by Julier and Chapoulier ventures into a kind of Heart of Darkness, transforming this diplomatic mission between two royal houses into an odyssey that begins as something merely strange and ends in outright savagery.

This Swiss-Spanish co-production draws much of its power from the radical nature of its approach. It is less a conventional historical narrative than an immersive experience, one that avoids extensive exposition, historical context, or the familiar conventions of the traditional period drama. The viewer is plunged directly into this almost Western-like trek undertaken by three profoundly different men, each of whom —and especially the inexperienced Alejandro— must confront firsthand the physical hardships and moral darkness of such a perilous expedition.

It is, above all, a film about the collision of worlds, connected through Alejandro, who is abruptly thrust from one into the other: from the refined, insulated universe of royal courts to the unforgiving realities of nature and of communities whose lives bear little resemblance to those of kings and nobles. The eventual union between Louis XIV and the Spanish Infanta would have political consequences that proved as dramatic as they were significant, and the film suggests that the foundations of that alliance were laid here, in the mud rather than in the palace.

Alternating moments of breathtaking beauty with others of striking harshness, in which nature reveals its most savage face, The Indes presents itself as a road movie of exploration, a profoundly physical experience for both its protagonists and its audience. Julier and Chapoulier—two Swiss multidisciplinary artists whose work also encompasses installation art and theater—have crafted a film that stands well outside the conventions of the European period piece.

The film recalls the anti-Western sensibility of Jauja and occasionally echoes the contemplative tone of Last Night I Conquered Thebes, another Spanish film that screened in the Giornate degli Autori last year, while also sharing something of Albert Serra’s austere visual approach to historical cinema. Yet none of those comparisons fully captures what The Indes ultimately is. It is a cinematic journey that challenges viewers to immerse themselves in a nightmarish experience from which, one senses, there is no easy escape.