Embrace of the Serpent

Embrace of the Serpent
Theatrical poster
Directed by	Ciro Guerra
Produced by	Cristina Gallego
Written by	Ciro Guerra Jacques Toulemonde Vidal
Based on	Diaries of Theodor Koch-Grunberg and Richard Evans Schultes
Starring	Jan Bijvoet Nilbio Torres Antonio Bolívar
Music by	Nascuy Linares
Cinematography	David Gallego
Edited by	Etienne Boussac
Production companies	Buffalo Films Buffalo Producciones Caracol Televisión Ciudad Lunar Producciones Dago García Producciones MC Producciones Nortesur Producciones
Distributed by	Diaphana Films
Release dates	15 May 2015 (2015-05-15) (Cannes) 21 May 2015 (2015-05-21) (Colombia)
Running time	125 minutes
Country	Colombia Venezuela Argentina
Language	Cubeo Huitoto Ticuna Wanano Spanish Portuguese German Catalan Latin English
Budget	$1.4 million[1]
Box office	$3.2 million[2]

Embrace of the Serpent (Spanish: El abrazo de la serpiente) is a 2015 internationally co-produced adventure drama film directed by Ciro Guerra, shot in black-and-white. The film won the Art Cinema Award in the Directors' Fortnight section at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival.^[3][4] It also won the Best Ibero-American Film at the 3rd Platino Awards and it was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 88th Academy Awards.^[5]

Plot

The film has tried to bring to the fore the current human struggle between a dissective utilitarian endeavour to understand nature within Minkowski space and an inherent holistic super-consciousness that begins with directing consciousness inward. According to the director Ciro Guerra, one of the greatest effects of the film on its viewers is that it awoke (or answered) an alternate awareness in them.^[6]

It tells two stories thirty years apart, both featuring Karamakate, an Amazonian shaman and last survivor of his tribe. He travels with two scientists, firstly with German Theo von Martius in 1909 and American named Evan in 1940, to look for the rare yakruna, a (fictional) sacred plant.^[7]

Theo, an ethnographer from Tübingen who has already resided in the Amazon for several years, is very sick and is travelling by canoe with his field notes and a westernised local he saved from enslavement on a rubber plantation named Manduca. Karamakate prolongs his life, blasting white powder called "the sun's semen" (possibly a hallucinogenic made from virola^[8]) up his nose, but is reluctant to become involved with a westerner and refuses his money. Theo is searching for yakruna as the only cure for his disease and the three, suspicious of each other, set off in the canoe to search for it.

Many years later an American botanist, Evan (Brionne Davis), paddles up to a much older Karamakate (Antonio Bolívar) who has apparently forgotten the customs of his own people. Evan says he is hoping to complete Theo's quest and Karamakate does assist, again reluctantly, saying his knowledge is spent. Evan has a book of Theo's final trek, which his aide sent back to Europe, as he did not survive the jungle. The book includes an image of Karamakate, which he refers to as his chullachaqui, a native term for hollow spirit. Karamakate agrees to help him only when Evan describes himself as someone who has devoted himself to plants, although Evan's real purpose is actually to secure disease-free rubber trees, since the United States's supplies of rubber from South East Asia had dwindled due to the Japanese wartime advance.

Both expeditions feature an "Apocalypse Now"-style Spanish Catholic Mission by the side of an Amazon tributary, run in 1909 by a sadistic, lone Spanish priest who beats orphan boys for any "pagan" behaviour, and in 1940 by a delusional Brazilian figure who believes he is the Messiah. He only trusts the visitors when he believes they are the Biblical Magi, but Karamakate wins his respect when he heals his wife. By now the children of 1909 have grown into disturbed and violent acolytes.

In 1909, we are left with Theo, sick and having fled the Mission, arriving at a frontier post just about to be invaded by Colombian soldiers during the Amazon rubber boom, where the sacred yakruna is being abused by drunken men, and cultivated, against local traditions. Karamakate is furious and destroys it. In 1940, Karamakate does show Evan the origin of the plant in striking denuded dome shaped mountains (Cerros de Mavecure), allegedly the home of yakruna. He reveals one yakruna flower that is on the last plant – he has destroyed all the others – and prepares it for Evan. The preparation being hallucinogenic, aids Evan in undergoing a superconscious experience. A part of this experience has been shown in colour to signify its intensity. The film ends with a transformed Evan remaining enamoured by a group of butterflies.

Cast

• Nilbio Torres as Young Karamakate
• Antonio Bolívar as Old Karamakate
• Jan Bijvoet as Theo
• Brionne Davis as Evan
• Luigi Sciamanna as Gaspar
• Yauenkü Migue as Manduca
• Nicolás Cancino as Anizetto

Production

Cerro Mono and Cerro Pajarito, which are part of the Mavicure Hills, are an important feature in the film.

Locations

Embrace of the Serpent was filmed in the Amazonía region of Colombia. Seven weeks were spent in the Department of Vaupés, and one week in the Department of Guainía, filming.^[9] Location details include:

• Cerros de Mavicure – Three mounds that form part of the westernmost part of the Guiana Shield in northern South America.
• Fluvial Star Inírida – A Ramsar Wetland that includes part of the Inírida River.
• Vaupés River – Tributary of the Amazon River that forms part of the international border between Colombia and Brazil.

Crew

Soundtrack

The soundtrack album of the movie was released by Plaza Major Company on 22 January 2016 and contains 9 songs composed by Nascuy Linares.^[10] The film also features The Creation by Joseph Haydn.

Track listing

Reception

Critical response

The film has received universal acclaim from critics. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives it a 98% approval rating, based on 118 reviews, with an average score of 8.4/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "As rich visually as it is thematically, Embrace of the Serpent offers a feast of the senses for film fans seeking a dose of bracing originality". On Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating, the film has a score of 82 out of 100 based on 31 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

Indiewire's Jessica Kiang awarded the film an A rating, calling it "a soulful, strange and stunning discovery". She also described the character of Karamakate as "an immaculate portrait of the unfathomable loneliness and crushing survivor's guilt that comes with being the last of one's kind".^[11] Jordan Mintzer of The Hollywood Reporter described the film as "a visually mesmerizing exploration of man, nature and the destructive powers of colonialism" and compared it to Miguel Gomes' Tabu (2012). He also praised the black-and-white cinematography and the sound design which he said "makes the jungle truly come alive".^[12] Justin Chang of Variety gave a positive review of the film. He wrote: "At once blistering and poetic, not just an ethnographic study but also a striking act of cinematic witness...". About the parallel narrative he wrote it "delivers a fairly comprehensive critique of the destruction of indigenous cultures at the hands of white invaders".^[13] Video essayist Kogonada voted for the film on Sight & Sound magazine's poll for best film of 2015, stating that "Embrace of the Serpent is a mesmerizing feat of cinema. Guerra had me at frame one."^[14]

Accolades

The film was screened in the Directors' Fortnight section at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival^[15][16] where it won the Art Cinema Award.^[3] The film won the Golden Apricot at the 2015 Yerevan International Film Festival, Armenia, for Best Feature Film; the Special Jury Award at the Odessa Film Festival, and the Spondylus Trophy at the Lima Film Festival.

The Governor of the Guainía Department, decorated Ciro Guerra with the Order of the Inírida Flower for "exalting the respect and value of the indigenous populations, likewise giving the Department recognition for tourism and culture".^[17]

The film was announced as Colombia's submission for the 2016 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film,^[18] and was selected among the final five contenders, being the first Colombian film to be nominated for the award.

Top ten lists

Embrace of the Serpent was named the 12th best film of 2016 by Esquire.^[29] Sight & Sound ranked it 21st with seven votes.^[30] Mark Kermode from The Guardian also included it in its list of best films of 2016.^[31]

See also

• List of submissions to the 88th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film
• List of Colombian submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film

References

External links

• Embrace of the Serpent at the Internet Movie Database
• Embrace of the Serpent at AllMovie
• Embrace of the Serpent at Box Office Mojo
• Embrace of the Serpent at Metacritic
• Embrace of the Serpent at Rotten Tomatoes
• Embrace of the Serpent at Science & Film