Zama [ˈsama] is a 2017 period drama film written and directed by Lucrecia Martel, based on the 1956 novel of the same name by Antonio di Benedetto.

Uninterested by the gossip, Zama spends his time trying to seduce the wealthy, married Spanish noblewoman Luciana Piñares de Luenga, who rebuffs him.

The men kill the captain and let Zama live as they believe he has information about hidden jewels that will make them rich (actually some worthless geodes mentioned in Ventura's book).

The website's critical consensus states, "Zama offers a series of scathingly insightful observations about colonialism and class dynamics — and satisfyingly ends a long wait between projects from writer-director Lucrecia Martel.

"[14] Metacritic, another review aggregator, assigned the film a weighted average score of 88 out of 100, based on 23 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

Club's A.A. Dowd gave the film a B+ grade and wrote: "Zama, despite its setting, isn’t such a radical departure for Martel; it preserves her talent for tracking an individual through chaotic social spheres".

[17] Luciano Monteagudo of Página/12 praised Martel's direction and considered Zama to be "a new peak in her work, a film with a visual and sound complexity that is out of the norm in contemporary cinema, capable of breaking with narrative linearity to go in search of a colonial past that can only be imagined in a fragmentary way, as one who explores his identity in the remnants of what is called History.

"[18] An enthusiastic review came from Clarín's Pablo O. Scholz, who called it "an invitation to the senses, a film that floods, overflows in more than one meaning" and a "captivating experience.

[20] Writing for Otros Cines, Diego Batlle gave the film the highest rating and compared it to the works of Terrence Malick, Werner Herzog, John Ford and Claire Denis, while stating: "but Martel's cinema is unique, non-transferable, inimitable, incomparable.