FILMS & PROJECTS

The Other Conquest

The Spanish Army of Hernando Cortes has swept through the New World, forcing their religious beliefs on the brave Aztec People. They would conquer their land, but not their soul.

  • “A $3 million film that looks like $30 million!”

    — Variety

  • “In his bravura feature debut, Salvador Carrasco has created nothing less than a dazzling cinematic vision.”

    — Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times (Top Rotten Tomatoes Critic)

  • “Vividly imagined, elegantly paced… a bona fide illumination of social, and sacred, history.”

    — LA Weekly

  • “In terms of entertainment value, it’s bracing stuff.”

    — Entertainment Today

  • “Carrasco ought to emerge as one of the world's best directors.”

    — Oscar® Watch

  • “Carrasco’s film is often gorgeous, never less than entertaining, and… moving.”

    — TV Guide

  • “Produced well before the current new wave of popularity of Mexican films, The Other Conquest might just be the one that leaves having touched the most hearts.”

    — San Antonio Express

  • “By comparison, Apocalypto was just a rumble in the jungle…”

    — San Diego Union Tribune

  • “Not since ‘Schindler’s List’ has a film spoken so eloquently to the triumph of the human spirit.”

    — La Opinión

  • “A masterpiece.”

    — Wim Wenders (Film Director, ‘Wings of Desire’)

  • “Every shot made sense… held the eye each moment and insisted: not this is how it was, but this is how it is.”

    — Robert Kelly (US laureate poet)

  • “I love this movie so much… how far the characters will go in their inner world, in their battle for their souls.”

    — Václav Marhoul (Film Director, ‘The Painted Bird’)

  • “What makes a great movie is having something to say. And The Other Conquest makes its case that when two cultures clash, neither wins, but both are forever altered.”

    Richard Nilsen, Arizona Republic (Top Rotten Tomatoes Critic)

  • “An impressive, beautifully visual film.”

    — Box Office Magazine

  • “A grand mural of trauma, with superb colors, a great escape scene and fertile myth-probing.”

    — San Diego Union Tribune

  • “An incendiary mix of politics, religion, war, violence and personal turbulence.”

    — Holywood.com

  • “Carrasco elicits strong performances from his cast members… Enhancing the fine direction are a masterful score and rich, glowing camera work.”

    — Cine World

  • “A marvelous vision: at once spectacle, history lesson, and potent psychological drama.”

    — Marjorie Baumgarten, Austin Chronicle (Top Rotten Tomatoes Critic)

  • “This is a really superior film. It was the biggest film in the history of Mexico – and is a brilliant movie about the collision of cultures, faiths and beliefs. You owe yourself a look at this movie!”

    — Harry Knowles, Ain’t It Cool News

  • “Epic... Dazzling... Stupendous... An extravagant spectacle.”

    — Los Angeles Times

  • “This movie penetrates us to the very marrow. I am not the same person I was before I saw it.”

    — Guadalupe Loaeza (Acclaimed Mexican Novelist)

  • “When I read Carrasco’s screenplay, I was impressed by the absolute correspondence between the images on the screen and the images on paper.”

    — Laura Esquivel (Author of “Like Water for Chocolate”)

  • “Carrasco’s film is a classic, a true mythological construction… His visual style is comparable to the imagery of Luis Buñuel.”

    — Eduardo Subirats (Spanish philosopher)

  • “A daring balance between a stylized form and unbridled emotion”

    — Los Angeles Times

  • “Carrasco has a rich visual sense that lends this modestly budgeted effort an impressive luster.”

    — The Hollywood Reporter

Trailer

Image Gallery

All photos by Andrea Sanderson ©Salvastian Pictures, Inc.

Music

Impact

The Other Conquest created a significant impact. From acclaimed directors to academicians, eminent authors to critics, numerous people wrote on the movie on many different medias, such as newspapers, magazines, books, websites, and more… It has an 85% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Production

The chronology of The Other Conquest is based on the facts and dates we know about the Spanish Conqueror Hernando Cortés, whose life serves as the historical axis of the narrative of the film.

Synopsis

The Other Conquest is an intimate epic film that brings to life the world of 1520s Mexico with unforgettable images and searing drama. Spanish Conquistadors roam the new world, searching for gold and treasure as the Catholic Church imposes a new faith on the Aztecs. Caught in the whirlwind of history is Topiltzin (Damián Delgado), an Aztec scribe brought before the legendary conqueror Hernán Cortés (Iñaki Aierra), who has taken as his mistress the daughter of the deposed Emperor Moctezuma, Tecuichpo (Elpidia Carrillo).

Topiltzin is sentenced to a cloistered existence where he is thrown into a battle between preserving his people’s history and adapting to the new religion. Overseeing Topiltzin’s forced conversion is Friar Diego (José Carlos Rodríguez), who will make surprising discoveries as he struggles to conquer Topiltzin’s soul. Hailed by audiences worldwide, Salvador Carrasco’s film captures the clash and resistance of cultures that gave birth to modern Latin America.

The Other Conquest is masterful filmmaking featuring powerful performances and recreations of a time and place in world history that has much to say about the past, but is incredibly relevant in our present.