Few films today dare to say so much with so little. ‘Last night I conquered Tebas’, Gabriel Azorín’s first feature film, arrives in theaters after screening at the Venice Film Festival, where it was one of the most acclaimed films of its edition. It is described as a “historical”, “ghost” and “aquatic” film and, above all, as a film “about friendship between men through the ages.” The title, in fact, is taken from a conversation between Matt Damon and Casey Affleck in ‘Gerry’ (2002) by Gus Van Sant.
The film follows a group of friends who arrive at some Roman baths in Ourense. There, between baths and seemingly everyday conversations, we learn about the relationship that exists between them. They talk about video games, their plans, what worries them. They are very natural conversations, almost voyeuristic, as if we were listening to a group of friends who do not know that there is a camera in front of them. Little by little, these conversations are taking on another weight.
After a spectacular drone shot that reveals the ruins and hot springs from the air, a tour guide explains the place to a group of visitors. The friends, meanwhile, get into the water. And then the film begins to hint that there is another story, set many centuries ago.
Azorín makes this time jump seem surprisingly natural. There is no flashback or great explanations: the film simply cuts and we are in another time. The characters change, but the space remains. The director’s reference to the films of António Reis and Margarida Cordeiro and their “stratigraphies” is especially interesting here: different times can coexist in the same image without the need for one to be presented as a memory of the other.
It is the small details that pull the thread of the story. The astrology app that contemporary young people consult finds its echo in the scene in which one of the soldiers painstakingly ties his sandals. The friendships are the same; the conversations and the landscapes, in the background too. Perhaps the only drawback that can be made of the film is being excessively submerged: after a while you want to get out of the water because you feel wrinkled and you are cold.
Even so, ‘Last Night I Conquered Thebes’ is full of moments of enormous beauty. There is special care in the nocturnal hot springs, when the darkness of the valley is so intense that it is barely possible to distinguish the characters. There are also very careful images of the bodies of Roman soldiers, including the amputated leg of one of them, and a beautiful scene in which one manages to keep a small fire lit in the water. Little by little, the scenes are imprinted in memory.
The dialogues in the second part are also in Latin, and it is incredible to hear the actors hold such long conversations with a naturalness that makes you forget that you are watching a movie. The entire film, in fact, is spoken in Portuguese and Latin, something that contributes to that strange feeling of watching two historical moments that are very far apart, but that talk about quite similar things.
‘Last night I conquered Thebes’ counts for very little: some friends arrive at some thermal baths, bathe, talk and one of them leaves. Later, some Roman soldiers do the same. But the film turns that anecdote into a reflection on male friendship and the emotions – silent, but which come to light here – that sustain it. A fun fact: a friend told Azorín that the movie was science fiction because it showed “men talking about their emotions.” Maybe a little bit it is.
In the final minutes, the two eras end up meeting in a beautiful, almost Tarkovskian way. Perhaps ‘Last Night I Conquered Thebes’ is a historical film because it tells that history repeats itself and speaks not only of what changes, but also of what does not. It is a beautiful and hypnotic film that manages to make an ordinary afternoon in a hot spring seem to contain two thousand years of history.
