Agora

Agora (2009) is Alejandro Amenabar's historical drama, and you can watch it online on iFILM. In Alexandria near the close of the fourth century, mobs torch the great library while a woman keeps mapping the sky.

Hypatia (Rachel Weisz) teaches geometry and astronomy as the classical city tears itself apart around her. Pagans, Jews and a fast-rising Christian movement turn her lecture hall into a battlefield. Her slave Davus (Max Minghella) loves her, yet freedom waits for him inside the new faith. A student named Orestes (Oscar Isaac) will rise to govern the city and still fail to shield her. Through the riots, Hypatia chases one stubborn question: how do the planets actually move?

Amenabar rebuilt Alexandria, lighthouse and harbor, on sets in Spain and Malta, guided by historians rather than legend; the film took seven Goya Awards, screenplay among them. Few movies make an argument about the shape of an orbit feel more urgent than a romance. Stream Agora (2009) online on iFILM.