Alejandro Amenábar takes out Historical Adventure ‘The Captive’

Packed with panoramic photos of a 1575 Algiers, “The Captive” by Oscar-winning director Alejandro Amenábar (“The Sea Inside,” “The Others”), weighs as one of the greatest Spanish films of 2025 and play a wide audience.

It is an adventure story, in the course of the years of 1575-1580, aimed at the author of the “Don Quixote”, Miguel de Cervantes as a young Spanish soldier in a general prison after conquest by Ottoman Corsairs. There, however, Cervantes (Julio Peña) discovers his power of stories. Cervantes, his mind, fascinating both fellow prisoners and the Bey or Algiers, also introduces a bold escape plan.

“The Captive” feels on time as a historical epic, such as in a majestic sweep over the port of Ottoman Empire Algiers, later seen from the tallest building, a Higedy Pigged Hotchpotch from Favela-like houses that extend to the sea.

For others, however, as Amenábar says, it tries to conquer the soul of Cervantes. “The Captive” starts with an outdated Miguel de Cervantes who writes “Don Quixote”, staring at light that filters through a window on him while looking for inspiration.

Cut into a brutal scene in Algiers, 1575, while he and other prisoners arriving in the city are visited in a patio where the rich are separated from the poor that are sold as slaves, screaming children are torn from the arms of their parents.

The film, but rises above that violence such as Cervantes’ Coming of Age, story, as a literary genius and one of the greatest humanists of history, trained by a disciple of Erasmus.

Lead produced by the MOD production of Spain, with Netflix that acquires Spain and selected foreign areas, “The Captive” has scored a healthy series of pre-sales for global constellation, including France with Haut et Court.

“The Captive” will be the world premiere in Toronto on 7 September, followed by a national release in Spanish theaters on 12 September. By Disney’s Buena Vista International.

Further pre-sales take in Greece and Cyprus (Filmtrade/Tanweer), Portugal (NOS Audiovisuais), Bulgaria), Pro Films) (Pro Films), former Yugoslavia (Discovery) and Encore (Airlines), with buyers in North America, Fabien, Fabien, Fabien, Fabien, Fabien, Fabien, Fabien, Fabien, Fabien, Fabien, Fabien, Fabien, Fabien, Fabien, Fabien, Fabien, Fabien Tells, Tells, Tells, Tells, Tells, Tells, Tells, Tells, Tells, Tells, Tells, Tells, Tells, Tells, Tells, Tells, Tells, Tells, Tells, Tells, Tells, Tells, Tells, Tells, Tells, Tells. Variety.

“Amenábar makes a radical cinematic epic, the detection of the origin story of one of the most iconic literary spirits of history against the dramatic background of two collision civilizations. A daring, compelling adventure made for the big screen, promises to fascinate the audience around the world,” Westerhoff noted.

Variety sat down with Amenábar for the world premiere of the film at the Toronto Intl. Film festival.

“The Captive” is your first adventurous movie.

The life of Cervantes, especially this period, almost plays as an adventure film. There are several plot twists: he fights for Spain in Italy at the Sea Battle of Lepanto. Back in Spain, he is taken prisoner by Arab Corsairs, he suffers five years in prison in Algiers, where he makes four escape intentions.

The film is also multi -layered.

Yes, I was not going to make a biopic, but I was interested in his sense of humanity. I discovered researchers that this period was enormously relevant to understand Cervantes as a literary genius and as a person. So the film is a genre blender: A High Adventure, An Origins Tale, a prison drama and melodrama. I almost dared to say that it is gay drama at some point.

The writings of Cervantes combine a high-style and an extraordinary realism, in the ordinary lifetime detail and the spoken language dialogue.

If this was a “Batman” film, it would be a “Batman” Origins film, but here it is about the man who invented the modern novel. His five years in an Algerian prison, where he witnessed torture, extreme poverty and death, must have been just as traumatic as experiencing a 20th century concentration camp. It must have marked him forever.

One of the most memorable scenes of the film has given Cervantes permission to visit the local market. He is surprised about his sights, exuberance, bustle and light.

The imprisonment of Cervantes brought him into contact with Muslim culture. Encountering another world breaks your mental schemes, it enriches. This is seen in the work of Cervantes. He attributes the manuscript of “Don Quixote” to an Arab author. He returns time and time again to his experience in Algiers. These five years give him a sense of humanity and complexity and that can be seen in his characters, especially in “Don Quixote”.

Like you said, this is not a classic biopic.

I tried to invade the soul of Cervantes. This desire for dialogue, understanding of other people, of friendship can be seen in the relationship between Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. I think Cervantes must have had an in -depth feeling of empathy.

“The Captive” must be the only prison film with this certain feeling of light and optimism.

I wanted it to be in its character, and in some respects in the film. In the beginning I aimed to underline the horror of captivity, but as the film progressed, and Cervantes begins to tell his story about a prisoner to his colleague prisoners, when the world of imagination was understood as an escape of reality, for me the film is a feeling of light, even in the face of the horror of the horror, begun.