Embrace of the Serpent (Ciro Guerra, 2015): Columbia, Venezuela, Argentina.

Reviewed by Vincenzo Muia at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2016. Fiesta Theater.

When Film Festival director Roger Durling introduced this film at the Fiesta Theater, he announced that he saved the best for last, sorry Marguerite. A brief backstory of the production by Roger as well as director Ciro Guerra led me to believe I had made the right choice of film that afternoon.

    Embrace of the Serpent (Ciro Guerra, 2015) a.k.a El Abrazo de la serpiente tells the story of invaded Amazonian cultures through the indigenous peoples’ perspective. A brief discussion with Columbian director Ciro Guerra who indicated the film, his third, was guided by the indigenous people, both in front of and behind the camera. There was also a shaman present during filming to help protect the film, which was shot on location in northeast Amazon, Vaupés, on the border between Brazil and Colombia. Embrace of the Serpent explores time without time, with two parallel narratives in the film, both of which are inspired by the real-life journals of Theodor Koch-Grünberg, a German explorer, and Richard Evans Schultes, an American botanist. The narratives are divided by time, with frequent cutbacks to allow the flow of similarities in between the two. Both parallel stories involve Karamakate, the last living member of an indigenous Amazonian tribe. The young Karamakate is played by Nilbio Torres while the elder is played by Antonio Bolivar. Both versions of Karamakate offer guidance through the jungle to the explorers in different decades, however, there is much doubt and distrust from both Karamakates, via the destruction of the jungle as well as his tribespeople from rubber barons. Both Theodor a.k.a. Theo(Jan Bijvoet) and Richard a.k.a. Evan (Brionne Davis) are on a quest to locate the yakruna, a hallucinogenic plant which thrives near rubber trees known for its healing properties. During their quests, they encounter an indifferent jungle that was portrayed with respect. Both protagonists are in a duel race of time to find the Yakruna, albeit with completely different motives. Their journeys include an escape from attacking Columbian soldiers, an encounter with an abusive missionary, the discovery of a jungle cult led by a self-professed Messiah, and a decision which may lead to the destruction of an entire species of the miraculous healing plant.

The entire film is filmed in monochrome black-and-white. According to director Ciro Guerra, it’s effect was “to distinguish that there is no difference among things.” The inspiration to keep the film black and white comes from the journals and illustrations of the explorers, parts of which are the only known account of some of the indigenous cultures in the Amazon. Guerra also mentioned that storytelling from the indigenous actors had come naturally, a tradition told around a tribal fire amongst their people for centuries.

Already having won several awards at International Film Festivals such as Cannes and Sundance, Embrace of the Serpent is also an Academy Award nominee for Best Foreign Language Film. This is a unique film which conveys the effects of man’s destruction upon the environment and touches upon social and political commentary of the abuse of economic and religious authority. Director Ciro Guerra paints a masterful picture that will have you questioning your own social and environmental responsibilities to your surroundings in our eternal quest of harmony between man and nature, a concept visually presented in the film’s final scene.