Spoken mostly in Indigenous dialects, Portuguese Brazilian and Spanish Embrace of the Serpent by the Colombian director Ciro Guerra is beyond no doubt a rather singular film, which like the main characters, takes us on a journey, one that immerses us in the growing friendship between an Amazon shaman, Karamakate (the last survivor of an Amazon tribal group - the Cohiuano) and two Westerners (a German scientist and explorer, Theodor Von Martius and an American botanist, Richard Evans Schultes) throughout two different time periods, the problematic of knowing where one comes from and heads to, resignation and defiance to external invasions, religious and native beliefs ...
In spite of having been shot in black and white (with the exception of one Amazon scenary sequence with specks of green in an impressionist-like type of approach) it's frightfully beautiful, almost poetical at times. The whole text is powerful ... and the actors' interpretation second to none.
"The jungle is fragile and if you strike her, she will strike back." - Karamakate
"All I know is that when I came back, I had come another man." - Theodor
Having been awarded several major prizes it is really worth being seen ...
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