Embrace of the Serpent

(El abrazo de la serpiente, Ciro Guerra, Colombia/Venezuela/Argentina 2015, 125 min., DCP, various languages w/subtitles)

In the third feature by Ciro Guerra, a film at once blistering and poetic, the ravages of colonialism cast a dark shadow over the South American landscape. Filmed in stunning black and white, Embrace of the Serpent centers on Karamakate, an Amazonian shaman and the last survivor of his people, and the two scientists who, over the course of forty years, build a friendship with him. The film was inspired by the real-life journals of two explorers (Theodor Koch-Grünberg and Richard Evan Schultes) who traveled through the Colombian Amazon during the last century in search of the sacred and difficult-to-find psychedelic Yakruna plant.

“A visually mesmerizing exploration of man, nature and the destructive powers of colonialism.” – The Hollywood Reporter