Agora (2009)

Agora is situated on the theological and philosophical plane, dramatizing the conflict between pagan Neoplatonic philosophy, embodied in Hypatia, and the rise of Christianity in 4th-century Alexandria. The work constructs a Manichean narrative: pagans and Jews as guardians of rational wisdom, while Christians, under Bishop Cyril, appear as fanatical hordes who burn the Library and murder the philosopher in an act of liturgical barbarism. This vision distorts real history, where Christianity preserved much of ancient knowledge through copyist monks, and omits the context of mutual revolts between factions. Hypatia, a rationalist atheist, stands as a martyr of Reason against Faith, ignoring that the Catholic Church integrated Aristotelian and Platonic philosophy into its theology, culminating in Saint Thomas. The film instrumentalizes the free will of Davo, a slave converted to Christianity, to suggest that faith equates to irrational submission. There are no glimmers of redemptive Grace or transcendence; Christianity is reduced to oppressive power, contradicting the Christian anthropology of the person as the image of God, called to virtue through natural law and Revelation. Although visually striking, its covert agenda deconstructs the historical filiation of the Church, presenting faith as an enemy of the rational order. Parents, evaluate whether this anthropological subversion nurtures wisdom or sows confusion in your children.