The latest eagerly-awaited film by Alejandro Amenabar will participate in the Official Section, but not in competition, of the Cannes International Film Festival, to be held from 13th to 24th May.

“After four years’ work”, commented Alejandro Amenabar, “I am delighted that the film will be screened for the first time before such a great audience and intrigued to see how far we manage to transport the spectators in time and space.”

In this state of excitement Alejandro Amenabar returns to the big screen after the international acclaim he received for The Sea Inside , winning the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 2005. And this is to be expected, as he returns with the biggest blockbuster ever to be made in Spain, and his second venture in English with international actors after The Others .

Set in the 4th century in Egypt under the Roman Empire, Agora tells the story of the astronomer Hypatia’s struggle to save the legendary library of Alexandria from the dangers of violent religious upheavals. Based on this premise, the filmmaker from Madrid invites the modern spectator to undertake a strange journey to the Ancient World, combining monumental sets with real action and state-of-the-art visual effects.

“The entirety of this experience, since Mateo Gil, Fernando Bovaira and I started to dream up this project, has been very exciting. Agora is, in many ways, a story from the past about what is happening now, a mirror allowing the audience to see and observe from the distance of time and space and to discover, surprisingly, that the world hasn’t changed so much”.

Hypatia is played by Rachel Weisz, who won an Oscar for The Constant Gardener, surrounded by a solid cast featuring actors of international renown such as Max Minghella (Syriana), Oscar Isaac (Body of Lies ) or veteran French actor Michael Lonsdale (Munich).

Filming took place in Malta during 15 weeks between March and July of 2008, with a top-level international team, notably including artistic director Guy Dyas (Indiana Jones and the Kindom of the Crystal Skull), costume designer Gabriella Pescucci (Oscar winner for The Age of Innocence) and composer Dario Marianelli (Oscar for Atonement).

The film will arrive in cinemas next autumn.