Rachel Weisz and director Alejandro Amenábar traveled back to ancient times to tell a modern story about a progressive woman standing against religious dogma and persecution. Hypatia struggles to preserve scientific knowledge amid the clash of zealots in Alexandria, whose rising Christian population grows increasingly militant toward Jews and worshippers of the Egyptian gods.

Amenabar dove into astronomy research but said he did not want to make a movie about a figure such as Galileo because everyone already knew his story. Amenabar’s studies eventually led him to Hypatia, a woman dealing with current issues in ancient times.

Rachel Weisz plays astrologer-philosopher Hypatia of Alexandria, who fights to save the collected wisdom of the ancient world.

The central dramatic event is the sacking of Alexandria’s fabled library, the repository of “all the knowledge of the world” up to that time, and the parallel drawn between early-day Christian fundamentalists, who have just been legalized by the Roman Empire at the story’s start, and a certain other religion’s present-day fanatics is entirely clear.

The story also creates a love triangle of sorts among Hypatia and her devoted slave (Max Minghella) and one of her students (Oscar Isaac). Her slave Davus (Minghella) is torn between his love for his mistress and the possibility of gaining his freedom by joining the rising tide of Christianity.

Premiered at the Cannes Film Festival the movie will be shown at Toronto Film Festival next month.

Can't say I heard about this before I just stumbled over the link. Looks pretty interesting.