In the era of Alexandria Library 1600 years ago, Hipatiaran was one of the top mathematicians and astronomers in the world. His father was a famous mathematician and philosopher Theon, and Hipatia helped his father revise Ptolemy's Astronomy and Euclid's Elements of Geometry. Under their revision and errata, The Elements of Geometry became the final version. In her later career, Hipatia supplemented the algebra of Diophantine, the father of algebra, and the conic curve of apollonius. At the age of 30, Hipatia became the academic leader of Neo-Platonic Philosophy School, which made her famous all over the world. Later, she taught philosophy and mathematics in Alexandria until Christianity persecuted her to death.

In 4 12, Cyril became the archbishop of Christianity, and his political struggle with Orestes, the governor of Alexandria, became fierce. At that time, due to the slow rise of Christianity and the fortress of Alexandria at the southern tip of the Mediterranean, the church and Roman nobles all wanted to dominate the ideological rights and master the sovereignty here, so the struggle between Christianity and the government was extremely fierce in Alexandria, among which the outstanding female scholar Hipatia was the first to bear the brunt. At that time, while studying mathematics and philosophy, Hipatia was dissatisfied with the Christian church. In addition, she was closely related to the Roman nobility, and the Christian church always regarded her as a thorn in the side. Finally, he failed to escape the persecution of the Christian church and became a victim of the wrestling between religion and science. There are two theories about her death. One is that she was brutally killed by a monk, and the other is that she was killed by a group of Christian fanatics.

Hipatia's death has long been regarded as a symbol of "the disappearance of civilization" in the western world. After her death, Alexandria gradually lost its charm of attracting first-class scientists to teach. Because Hipatia is a beautiful and intelligent woman, her death is often portrayed as the end of romanticism in literary and artistic works.

Wade across the river by feeling the stones on the riverbed-learn how to do things by trial and error.

Although Hipatia is a world-famous mathematician, there is little information about her life in history. She didn't have a complete biography of herself, didn't study her monograph, and her works were lost, not even portraits-only portraits drawn by later generations according to inference and imagination. Later generations can only infer Hipatia's life and experience from the corresponding historical documents in Hipatia's letters.

Director Amanba said: "No information is really a headache. We have to put all the known things we can find together and then find out the main line of Hipatia's life. My crew and I have been thinking about what her death means, what impact it has on Alexandria and what role it has on the civilization and progress of the whole world. On the other hand, it's a good thing that we don't have information, because it means that I can use my brains to enrich the story of Hipatia's life and show her heart and thoughts. If her biographical novel is well prepared, I don't think I have this convenience. When I was writing the script, I kept thinking about what kind of woman she would be and what kind of life and experience she would have. I took out the details I could think of and discussed them with the crew, and with the necessary love clues, it became the last movie. "

However, according to the screenwriter Matteo Hill, the director only did it for the box office. He has his own ideas. He said: "I want to show the image of women in a patriarchal world. Although she has superb wisdom and beautiful appearance, she is always invincible to fate. The power of religion is enormous, and no matter how excellent an individual is, he can't escape the mercy of religion and politics. This is not only a personal tragedy of Hipatia, but also a tragedy of the history of civilization. "

Religion and scepter

In order to make the film more enjoyable, the director set up a set of complementary roles: Orestes, the governor of Alexandria, and Dawes, Hipatia's personal slave. In this film, Orestes is the representative of anti-Christianity. He is a student of Hipatia and madly loves his teacher. He hoped that Hipatia could marry himself, but he didn't want this marriage to ruin Hipatia's freedom. Oscar isaac, who plays Orestes, said, "Actually, I think Orestes is a rational believer. On the one hand, he advocates science, on the other hand, he abides by his own beliefs. So I think he is a divided figure. He has always been in a passive position in love, but sometimes he can jump out of love with Hipatia and look on coldly. I want to strengthen his humanity in the film. He is not a tyrant as generally thought. "

Daus, Hipatia's private slave, is played by Max Minguela, the son of the late director Anthony Minguela. The role of Daus is full of two sides. On the one hand, he admired Hipatia's beauty and wisdom, on the other hand, he felt inferior to his identity. Although he was full of admiration for Hipatia, he finally devoted himself to the torrent of Christianity. Max Minguela said, "Dawes is a slave, and he is eager to be recognized by others. His anxiety and resentment come from not being recognized. So he finally had to choose Christianity, and only there was he not a slave to anyone. "

After the film was released in Spain on a small scale, it received rave reviews, a large part of which was due to the praise of these two characters. Director Amanba said: "This is something that makes me very happy. In the film, it is impossible to reach this height if you only talk about Hipatia's personal life. " To live in a society where men are in power, a female scholar must tell the stories of men around her. Only by telling their stories completely can we show Hipatia's life course. Rachel Vichy said, "Although I didn't know who Hipatia was before, I immediately decided to star in this movie after reading Amanba's script. It was not so much the life of Hipatia that touched me as the fragile life of a woman struggling between religion and scepter. I like this script very much. "

When Amanba was writing a script, she imagined Rachel Vichy as Hipatia.

The film was shot in Fort Ricardo, Malta, and the crew built an accurate "Alexandria" for this purpose. In 2000, the crew of Gladiator built the Colosseum here. In addition, Troy in 2004 was also filmed here.

Hipatia was originally played by Nicole Kidman, but she was criticized by Christians for playing a beautiful woman in The Golden Compass. In order to prevent this from happening again, she voluntarily quit the film crew.

Almost all the scripts of Amanba movies were written by mateo gil. (The films they collaborated on include Thesis, Open Your Eyes, Inland Sea and City Square).