A region bustling with the winds of change throughout the 2010s — both progressive and retrograde — Latin America enjoyed a banner decade that witnessed the rise of films grappling with economic inequality, indigenous discrimination, and Lgbtq+ issues.
Mexico’s production continued to skyrocket (from Amat Escalante to Eugenio Derbez), Chile emerged as a powerhouse in both the arthouse and mainstream markets (with the Larraín brothers’ Fabula production company and the unofficial movement known as Chilewood), and countries like Panama (“Invasion”), the Dominican Republic (“Woodpeckers”), and Paraguay (“The Heiresses”) made strides towards a more consistent output of noteworthy offers. Although far from a definitive list, these 11 features give the world the opportunity to take a peek at the varied perspectives of Latin American creators, veterans and up-and-comers:
“Aquarius” (2016)
Vigorous and sensual, Sonia Braga commands director Kleber Mendonça Filho’s vital character study in her career-best work playing Doña Clara. The timeless Brazilian...
Mexico’s production continued to skyrocket (from Amat Escalante to Eugenio Derbez), Chile emerged as a powerhouse in both the arthouse and mainstream markets (with the Larraín brothers’ Fabula production company and the unofficial movement known as Chilewood), and countries like Panama (“Invasion”), the Dominican Republic (“Woodpeckers”), and Paraguay (“The Heiresses”) made strides towards a more consistent output of noteworthy offers. Although far from a definitive list, these 11 features give the world the opportunity to take a peek at the varied perspectives of Latin American creators, veterans and up-and-comers:
“Aquarius” (2016)
Vigorous and sensual, Sonia Braga commands director Kleber Mendonça Filho’s vital character study in her career-best work playing Doña Clara. The timeless Brazilian...
- 12/28/2019
- by Carlos Aguilar
- The Wrap
This is the Pure Movies review of Embrace of the Serpent, directed by Ciro Guerra, and starring Nilbio Torres, Jan Bijvoet, Antonio Bolivar and Brionne Davis.
- 6/13/2016
- by Dave Owen
- Pure Movies
The following contains material from the November 2015 review when the film was presented at the St. Louis International Film Festival.
We often hear people remark about how they’ve got a tune or melody “stuck in their head”. The same thing could be said for certain…magical…memorable films. An image or a sequence can stay in your brain for a long, long while. Embrace Of The Serpent is one such cinematic experience. It’s based on a true story. Oh wait, it’s based on two true stories, linked together by one remarkable man and, perhaps, the most famous, celebrated river in the world, the Amazon. And the man is Karamakate, the last shaman of his jungle tribe. We first meet him in 1940, deep into his sixties as played by Antonio Bolivar, when he encounters a man foreign to his home, an American scientist Richard Evans Schultes (Brionne Davis...
We often hear people remark about how they’ve got a tune or melody “stuck in their head”. The same thing could be said for certain…magical…memorable films. An image or a sequence can stay in your brain for a long, long while. Embrace Of The Serpent is one such cinematic experience. It’s based on a true story. Oh wait, it’s based on two true stories, linked together by one remarkable man and, perhaps, the most famous, celebrated river in the world, the Amazon. And the man is Karamakate, the last shaman of his jungle tribe. We first meet him in 1940, deep into his sixties as played by Antonio Bolivar, when he encounters a man foreign to his home, an American scientist Richard Evans Schultes (Brionne Davis...
- 3/11/2016
- by Jim Batts
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
More intriguing in its ambitions than in it successes, which are limited, and oddly keeps its distance from the very people it wants to enlighten us about. I’m “biast” (pro): nothing
I’m “biast” (con): nothing
(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)
Decades apart, two white scientists delve into the Amazonian rainforest in search of a rare plant with medicinal and hallucinatory qualities, with the assistance of a local shaman on opposite ends of his own life journey. Embrace of the Serpent attempts to frame the destruction of the rainforest’s ecology and peoples as a slow-motion tragedy on scales both personal and cultural, but it is more intriguing in its ambitions, which frustrate it, than in it successes, which are limited.
Colombian filmmaker Ciro Guerra and his cinematographer, David Gallego, shoot in black-and-white, which is at once visually distinctive but also rather flattening,...
I’m “biast” (con): nothing
(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)
Decades apart, two white scientists delve into the Amazonian rainforest in search of a rare plant with medicinal and hallucinatory qualities, with the assistance of a local shaman on opposite ends of his own life journey. Embrace of the Serpent attempts to frame the destruction of the rainforest’s ecology and peoples as a slow-motion tragedy on scales both personal and cultural, but it is more intriguing in its ambitions, which frustrate it, than in it successes, which are limited.
Colombian filmmaker Ciro Guerra and his cinematographer, David Gallego, shoot in black-and-white, which is at once visually distinctive but also rather flattening,...
- 2/28/2016
- by MaryAnn Johanson
- www.flickfilosopher.com
This is a reprint of our review from the 2015 Cannes Directors' Fortnight. A few minutes into Colombian director Ciro Guerra's "Embrace of the Serpent" we have met three of its four main characters, and they have encountered each other. In black and white, period-set images of the Amazonian jungle reminiscent of Miguel Gomes' "Tabu," a canoe carrying a gravely ill white man, Theo ("Borgman" star Jan Bijvoet), is punted onto the bank by the loyal native tribesman who serves as his traveling companion. On the bank stands a lone tribal shaman, Karamakate (Nilbio Torres), whose painted face, loin cloth, feathered armbands, phallic-looking necklace and erect, impassive stance seem an unspoken rebuke to the western-clothed native who has come to plead with Karamakate to save his white friend's life. That rebuke is soon spoken, however, in no uncertain terms: Karamakate has nothing but loathing for the white man who wiped out his tribe,...
- 2/18/2016
- by Jessica Kiang
- The Playlist
The Oscars are just over a week away, and the Foreign Film category is always one that's fun to keep an eye on. Not only does it feature great films, unlike the main categories which are discussed to death before Oscar night, the Foreign Film category tends to genuinely surprise. And one movie that could walk away with the big prize is "Embrace Of The Serpent," and today we have an exclusive clip. Read More: Watch: First Trailer For Cannes Winner 'Embrace Of The Serpent' Columbia's entry for the Oscars is directed by Ciro Guerra, stars Jan Bijvoet, Brionne Davis, Nilbio Torres, Antonio Bolivar, and Yauenkü Miguee, and centers on Karamakate, an Amazonian shaman and the last survivor of his people, and the two scientists who, over the course of 40 years, build a friendship with him. "There’s an idea in many of the texts that explore the...
- 2/17/2016
- by Edward Davis
- The Playlist
With even the Oscar nominated short films currently nearing the end of their theatrical run, one would imagine that just about every single film with a nomination in this year’s Oscar field would either be in theaters right now, or awaiting a home video release after a lengthy run in theaters big or small alike. However, if you’re director Ciro Guerra, you’re film is not only hitting theaters for the first time this week, but still making the festival circuit.
With a limited release beginning on February 17 in New York and on February 19 in La, Guerra’s latest film, the Oscar nominated foreign language film Embrace Of The Serpent, is also part of this year’s Portland International Film Festival, and joins The Sky Trembles as not only the festival’s most profoundly beautiful picture, but one of the most sumptuous black and white features in ages.
With a limited release beginning on February 17 in New York and on February 19 in La, Guerra’s latest film, the Oscar nominated foreign language film Embrace Of The Serpent, is also part of this year’s Portland International Film Festival, and joins The Sky Trembles as not only the festival’s most profoundly beautiful picture, but one of the most sumptuous black and white features in ages.
- 2/17/2016
- by Joshua Brunsting
- CriterionCast
A mystical tribal shaman leads two western explorers through his disappearing world, in this psychedelic, politically tinged Colombian adventure
“You are nothing but a white!” So shouts indigenous Amazonian shaman Karamakate (Nilbio Torres) to the seemingly on-the-level but still suspicious German scientist/explorer Theodor (Jan Bijvoet) in Ciro Guerra’s enthralling, politically tinged, psychedelic, historical adventure film Embrace of the Serpent. Reversing the perspective of more familiar movies such as Werner Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo or Roland Joffé’s The Mission, Embrace of the Serpent’s snaky crawl up the river investigates imperialism’s cultural pollution from the inside out, with the mystical Karamakate as a reluctant tour guide in two time periods.
One of the film’s many exciting features is how it slowly cuts between parallel expeditions. Theodor, accompanied by a westernised local, arrives in a canoe, sick with fever. Begrudgingly, the loincloth-wearing Karamakate nurses him back to health...
“You are nothing but a white!” So shouts indigenous Amazonian shaman Karamakate (Nilbio Torres) to the seemingly on-the-level but still suspicious German scientist/explorer Theodor (Jan Bijvoet) in Ciro Guerra’s enthralling, politically tinged, psychedelic, historical adventure film Embrace of the Serpent. Reversing the perspective of more familiar movies such as Werner Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo or Roland Joffé’s The Mission, Embrace of the Serpent’s snaky crawl up the river investigates imperialism’s cultural pollution from the inside out, with the mystical Karamakate as a reluctant tour guide in two time periods.
One of the film’s many exciting features is how it slowly cuts between parallel expeditions. Theodor, accompanied by a westernised local, arrives in a canoe, sick with fever. Begrudgingly, the loincloth-wearing Karamakate nurses him back to health...
- 2/17/2016
- by Jordan Hoffman
- The Guardian - Film News
Hearts of Darkness: Guerra’s Exceptional Exploration of Ruinous Colonialization
Colombian director Ciro Guerra charts an enigmatic narrative of parallel odysseys through the Amazon with his third feature, Embrace of the Serpent is no less intimate in its rendering of human interaction than previous films The Wandering Shadows (2004) and The Wind Journeys (2009), Guerra’s stark allegory of the extinction of indigenous cultures at the hands of well-meaning but ignorant white Europeans is powerfully resonant in this gorgeously shot film, touted as the first feature to be shot in the Colombian jungle in over three decades.
In 1909, ailing German explorer Theodor Koch–Grunberg (Jan Bijvoet) scours the Colombian jungle for isolated shaman Karamakate (Nilbio Torres), a guide he believes will lead him to an exotic plant known as yakruna, and thus restore his health. Karamakate, the last surviving member of his tribe, is incredibly wary of white men, and seems only...
Colombian director Ciro Guerra charts an enigmatic narrative of parallel odysseys through the Amazon with his third feature, Embrace of the Serpent is no less intimate in its rendering of human interaction than previous films The Wandering Shadows (2004) and The Wind Journeys (2009), Guerra’s stark allegory of the extinction of indigenous cultures at the hands of well-meaning but ignorant white Europeans is powerfully resonant in this gorgeously shot film, touted as the first feature to be shot in the Colombian jungle in over three decades.
In 1909, ailing German explorer Theodor Koch–Grunberg (Jan Bijvoet) scours the Colombian jungle for isolated shaman Karamakate (Nilbio Torres), a guide he believes will lead him to an exotic plant known as yakruna, and thus restore his health. Karamakate, the last surviving member of his tribe, is incredibly wary of white men, and seems only...
- 2/17/2016
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Ciro Guerra’s third feature Embrace of the Serpent is bracing for the novelty of its setting alone: a feature hasn’t been made in the Columbian Amazon region for 30something years. Without leaning solely on novelty value or simplistic exoticism, Embrace tells two stories. One, set in the early 20th century, is of Theodor Koch-Grunberg (Bivjoet), a real German ethnologist/explorer; at the story’s outset, he’s gravely ill and needs the help of solitary warrior Karamakate (Nilbio Torres) to find a rare plant that can cure him. Another story, some 40 or 50 years later, finds older Karamakate (Antonio Bolívar) guiding Richard Evans Schultes (Brionne Davis), another […]...
- 2/16/2016
- by Vadim Rizov
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
We could spent a lot of time sharing with you the kudos Ciro Guerra's "Embrace of the Serpent" has received so far: the C.I.C.A.E. Award at the Cannes Film Festival, an Indie Spirit Award nomination for Best Foreign Film, a slot at next month's Sundance Film Festival, not to mention being Colombia's official entry for the Oscars. Or, you could heed the words of Jessica Kiang in her review from the Croisette: "a work of art, and one of the most singular cinematic experiences you could hope to have." But if you're wondering what all the fuss is about, then perhaps it's time to tune in to the new trailer. Read More: Review: 'Embrace Of The Serpent' Is A Soulful, Strange, And Stunning Discovery Starring Jan Bijvoet, Brionne Davis, Nilbio Torres, Antonio Bolívar, and Yauenkü Miguee, the film spins two stories that take...
- 1/8/2016
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
Only one writer around here has managed to see Embrace of the Serpent, but such was their enthusiasm that the personal tallying — #3, to be exact — broke onto our top 50 of the year. The good news is that you need not wait long until it becomes available: Oscilloscope will release Ciro Guerra‘s film, itself Colombia’s Oscar Best Foreign Language Film Oscar entry, next month, and a preview has been released ahead of that.
Said Giovanni Marchini Camia in his write-up, “I have a weakness for heart-of-darkness films and Embrace of the Serpent ranks amongst the best (and most gorgeous) I’ve seen. It’s also the only one I can think of that successfully adopts a native perspective in charting the white man’s journey down the river, thus offering a moving elegy to the myriad cultures that were destroyed in the process instead of just probing into humanity’s vilest instincts.
Said Giovanni Marchini Camia in his write-up, “I have a weakness for heart-of-darkness films and Embrace of the Serpent ranks amongst the best (and most gorgeous) I’ve seen. It’s also the only one I can think of that successfully adopts a native perspective in charting the white man’s journey down the river, thus offering a moving elegy to the myriad cultures that were destroyed in the process instead of just probing into humanity’s vilest instincts.
- 1/8/2016
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
The entire Academy Awards endeavour seems to expand every year, as more and more often, shortlists are announced during the behind-the-scenes nominations process, ahead of the final nominations announcement. While that tends to make the awards season feel even longer, it does much to raise the profile of films that might otherwise be little noticed by general audiences – including those submitted to the Academy for consideration as Best Foreign Film.
The Academy accepts one submission from each country, and the deadline for those submissions was October 1st this year. The selection process then has two phases. In the first phase, the Foreign Language Film Award Committee screens each submission, and selects six for shortlisting, with an additional three selected by the Foreign Language Film Award Executive Committee. This set of nine films is then announced as the shortlist, and this is the announcement we have seen today.
The shortlisted films...
The Academy accepts one submission from each country, and the deadline for those submissions was October 1st this year. The selection process then has two phases. In the first phase, the Foreign Language Film Award Committee screens each submission, and selects six for shortlisting, with an additional three selected by the Foreign Language Film Award Executive Committee. This set of nine films is then announced as the shortlist, and this is the announcement we have seen today.
The shortlisted films...
- 12/22/2015
- by Sarah Myles
- We Got This Covered
Sundance 2016 is fast approaching. Last week we posted the movie lineup of Midnight and Competition film selections. We now have the complete lineup for the premieres in both the feature film and documentary categories. We also have their selections for the Spotlight and Kid films. I've also included a list of special events.
There are a lot of great films on this list that I'm excited about seeing because of the incredible talent involved. Viggo Mortensen and Frank Langella star in Captain Fantastic; Laura Dern, Kristen Stewart, Michelle Williams star in Certain Women; Rachel Weisz, Michael Shannon, Kathy Bates and Danny Glover star in Complete Unknown; Paul Rudd and Selena Gomez star in The Fundamentals of Caring; John Krasinski directed a film called The Hollars which he stars in with Anna Kendrick, Margo Martindale, Richard Jenkins, Sharlto Copley, and Charlie Day; Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi has made a new...
There are a lot of great films on this list that I'm excited about seeing because of the incredible talent involved. Viggo Mortensen and Frank Langella star in Captain Fantastic; Laura Dern, Kristen Stewart, Michelle Williams star in Certain Women; Rachel Weisz, Michael Shannon, Kathy Bates and Danny Glover star in Complete Unknown; Paul Rudd and Selena Gomez star in The Fundamentals of Caring; John Krasinski directed a film called The Hollars which he stars in with Anna Kendrick, Margo Martindale, Richard Jenkins, Sharlto Copley, and Charlie Day; Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi has made a new...
- 12/13/2015
- by Joey Paur
- GeekTyrant
Kate Plays ChristineThe lineup for the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, taking place between January 21 -31, has been announced.U.S. Dramatic COMPETITIONAs You Are (Miles Joris-Peyrafitte, USA): As You Are is the telling and retelling of a relationship between three teenagers as it traces the course of their friendship through a construction of disparate memories prompted by a police investigation. Cast: Owen Campbell, Charlie Heaton, Amandla Stenberg, John Scurti, Scott Cohen, Mary Stuart Masterson. World Premiere The Birth of a Nation (Nate Parker, USA): Set against the antebellum South, this story follows Nat Turner, a literate slave and preacher whose financially strained owner, Samuel Turner, accepts an offer to use Nat’s preaching to subdue unruly slaves. After witnessing countless atrocities against fellow slaves, Nat devises a plan to lead his people to freedom. Cast: Nate Parker, Armie Hammer, Aja Naomi King, Jackie Earle Haley, Gabrielle Union, Mark Boone Jr. World PremiereChristine (Antonio Campos,...
- 12/7/2015
- by Notebook
- MUBI
Top brass at the Park City festival have rounded out the feature line-up with a dazzling selection on paper that includes new work from Asif Kapadia and other returning alumni such as Todd Solondz, Taika Waititi and Joshua Marston.Scroll Down For Full List
Road movie The Fundamentals Of Caring by Rob Burnett starring Paul Rudd will close the festival, while Maggie Greenwald’s Sophie And The Rising Sun is the Salt Lake City Gala Film. Heid Ewing and Rachel Grady’s Norman Lear: Just Another Version Of You is a Day One Film.
The Premieres line-up introduces Indignation, the feature directorial debut from former Focus Features CEO and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon screenwriter James Schamus, and the latest world premieres from John Carney, Kenneth Lonergan, Ira Sachs and Diego Luna.
The Documentary Premieres section encompass latest films from Werner Herzog, Spike Lee, Liz Garbus and Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato.
The Spotlight...
Road movie The Fundamentals Of Caring by Rob Burnett starring Paul Rudd will close the festival, while Maggie Greenwald’s Sophie And The Rising Sun is the Salt Lake City Gala Film. Heid Ewing and Rachel Grady’s Norman Lear: Just Another Version Of You is a Day One Film.
The Premieres line-up introduces Indignation, the feature directorial debut from former Focus Features CEO and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon screenwriter James Schamus, and the latest world premieres from John Carney, Kenneth Lonergan, Ira Sachs and Diego Luna.
The Documentary Premieres section encompass latest films from Werner Herzog, Spike Lee, Liz Garbus and Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato.
The Spotlight...
- 12/7/2015
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Top brass at the Park City festival have rounded out the feature line-up with a dazzling selection on paper that includes new work from Asif Kapadia and other returning alumni such as Todd Solondz, Taika Waititi and Joshua Marston.Scroll Down For Full List
Road movie The Fundamentals Of Caring by Rob Burnett starring Paul Rudd will close the festival, while Maggie Greenwald’s Sophie And The Rising Sun is the Salt Lake City Gala Film. Heid Ewing and Rachel Grady’s Norman Lear: Just Another Version Of You is a Day One Film.
The Premieres line-up introduces Indignation, the feature directorial debut from former Focus Features CEO and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon screenwriter James Schamus, and the latest world premieres from John Carney, Kenneth Lonergan, Ira Sachs and Diego Luna.
The Documentary Premieres section encompass latest films from Werner Herzog, Spike Lee, Liz Garbus and Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato.
The Spotlight...
Road movie The Fundamentals Of Caring by Rob Burnett starring Paul Rudd will close the festival, while Maggie Greenwald’s Sophie And The Rising Sun is the Salt Lake City Gala Film. Heid Ewing and Rachel Grady’s Norman Lear: Just Another Version Of You is a Day One Film.
The Premieres line-up introduces Indignation, the feature directorial debut from former Focus Features CEO and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon screenwriter James Schamus, and the latest world premieres from John Carney, Kenneth Lonergan, Ira Sachs and Diego Luna.
The Documentary Premieres section encompass latest films from Werner Herzog, Spike Lee, Liz Garbus and Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato.
The Spotlight...
- 12/7/2015
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
We often hear people remark about how they’ve got a tune or melody “stuck in their head”. The same thing could be said for certain…magical…memorable films. An image or a sequence can stay in your brain for a long, long while. Embrace Of The Serpent is one such cinematic experience. It’s based on a true story. Oh wait, it’s based on two true stories, linked together by one remarkable man and, perhaps, the most famous, celebrated river in the world, the Amazon. And the man is Karamakate, the last shaman of his jungle tribe. We first meet him in 1940, deep into his sixties as played by Antonio Bolivar, when he encounters a man foreign to his home, an American scientist Richard Evans Schultes (Brionne Davis), who is in search of the healing plant, the yakruna. He had read about it in the diary of another scientist,...
- 11/5/2015
- by Jim Batts
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
From Latin America “Embrace of The Serpent” (“El Abrazo De La Serpiente”) is a coproduction of Colombia, Venezuela and Argentina.
This is a favorite film of mine and is the Colombian contender for Best Foreign Language Oscar nomination by Colombia’s Ciro Guerra whose past film “The Wind Journeys” also captured an existence far from our own reality. This film and the Venezuelan contender “Gone with the River” by Mario Crespo are the first shot in the Amazonian rainforest in over 30 years.
“Embrace of the Serpent” premiered in the Directors’ Fortnight section of the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, where it was awarded the top prize, the Ciace Art Cinema Award. It also screened at the Tiff this September.
It signals a new trend in world cinema, the stories of indigenous people from their particular points of view. While Sundance has been supporting Native Cinema for many years, now world festivals are also featuring them in greater numbers.
Both blistering and poetic, the ravages of colonialism cast a dark shadow over the South American landscape. “Embrace Of The Serpent” is the third feature by Ciro Guerra.
Filmed in stunning black-and-white, the film centers on Karamakate, an Amazonian shaman and the last survivor of his people, and the two scientists who, over the course of 40 years, build a friendship with him.
The film was inspired by the real-life journals of two explorers (Theodor Kock-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.
The film screens at AFI on November 6 at 6:30 Pm and on November 9 at 1:00 Pm
AFI programmer Landon Zakheim describes the film here:
The shaman Karamakate waits warily by the edge of the river as a German explorer approaches. The stranger seeks the Yakuna, a legendary rare flower that can cure the man of his mysterious sickness. Only the shaman knows its location, hidden deep within the recesses of the Colombian Amazon, but he is distrustful. It is white men who made him the last of his tribe. But the explorer knows of others of his kind, and so a perilous bargain is struck. Shifting between these events in 1909 and 40 years later, when an older Karamakate brings another foreigner on the same journey through a ravaged jungle… Ciro Guerra’s masterful use of monochromatic black-and-white, symbolic landscapes, overwhelming soundscapes and haunting, elliptical editing blend together to elevate ethnographic odyssey into a hypnotic and methodical work of pure cinema.
It will be released stateside by Oscilloscope in New York on Wednesday, February 17 and in Los Angeles on Friday, February 19, with a national rollout to follow.
International Sales Agent Films Boutique has sold to Natyls for Denmark, Diaphana for France, Magyarhangya for Hungary, trigon-film for Switzerland.
Director: Ciro Guerra
Screenwriter: Ciro Guerra, Jacques Toulemonde Vidal
Producer: Cristina Gallego
Executive Producer: Cristina Gallego, Raúl Bravo, Marcelo Céspedes, Horacio Mentasti, Esteban Mentasti
Director of Photography: David Gallego
Editor: Cristina Gallego, Etienne Boussac
Production Designer: Angélica Perea
Music: Nascuy Linares
Cast: Jan Bijvoet, Brionne Davis, Nilbio Torres, Antonio Bolívar, Yauenkü Miguee
Colombia | Venezuela | Argentina, 2015
122 min.
Feature
World Cinema Section
A program of the American Film Institute, AFI Fest presented by Audi is a celebration of global cinema and today’s Hollywood. It is an opportunity for master filmmakers and emerging artists to come together with audiences in the movie capital of the world. AFI Fest is the only festival of its stature that is free to the public. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognizes AFI Fest as a qualifying festival for both Short Film categories for the annual Academy Awards®.
Connect with AFI Fest at facebook.com/Afifest, twitter.com/Afifest and youtube.com/Afifest.
Free tickets: http://afi.com/afifest/freetickets.aspx...
This is a favorite film of mine and is the Colombian contender for Best Foreign Language Oscar nomination by Colombia’s Ciro Guerra whose past film “The Wind Journeys” also captured an existence far from our own reality. This film and the Venezuelan contender “Gone with the River” by Mario Crespo are the first shot in the Amazonian rainforest in over 30 years.
“Embrace of the Serpent” premiered in the Directors’ Fortnight section of the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, where it was awarded the top prize, the Ciace Art Cinema Award. It also screened at the Tiff this September.
It signals a new trend in world cinema, the stories of indigenous people from their particular points of view. While Sundance has been supporting Native Cinema for many years, now world festivals are also featuring them in greater numbers.
Both blistering and poetic, the ravages of colonialism cast a dark shadow over the South American landscape. “Embrace Of The Serpent” is the third feature by Ciro Guerra.
Filmed in stunning black-and-white, the film centers on Karamakate, an Amazonian shaman and the last survivor of his people, and the two scientists who, over the course of 40 years, build a friendship with him.
The film was inspired by the real-life journals of two explorers (Theodor Kock-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.
The film screens at AFI on November 6 at 6:30 Pm and on November 9 at 1:00 Pm
AFI programmer Landon Zakheim describes the film here:
The shaman Karamakate waits warily by the edge of the river as a German explorer approaches. The stranger seeks the Yakuna, a legendary rare flower that can cure the man of his mysterious sickness. Only the shaman knows its location, hidden deep within the recesses of the Colombian Amazon, but he is distrustful. It is white men who made him the last of his tribe. But the explorer knows of others of his kind, and so a perilous bargain is struck. Shifting between these events in 1909 and 40 years later, when an older Karamakate brings another foreigner on the same journey through a ravaged jungle… Ciro Guerra’s masterful use of monochromatic black-and-white, symbolic landscapes, overwhelming soundscapes and haunting, elliptical editing blend together to elevate ethnographic odyssey into a hypnotic and methodical work of pure cinema.
It will be released stateside by Oscilloscope in New York on Wednesday, February 17 and in Los Angeles on Friday, February 19, with a national rollout to follow.
International Sales Agent Films Boutique has sold to Natyls for Denmark, Diaphana for France, Magyarhangya for Hungary, trigon-film for Switzerland.
Director: Ciro Guerra
Screenwriter: Ciro Guerra, Jacques Toulemonde Vidal
Producer: Cristina Gallego
Executive Producer: Cristina Gallego, Raúl Bravo, Marcelo Céspedes, Horacio Mentasti, Esteban Mentasti
Director of Photography: David Gallego
Editor: Cristina Gallego, Etienne Boussac
Production Designer: Angélica Perea
Music: Nascuy Linares
Cast: Jan Bijvoet, Brionne Davis, Nilbio Torres, Antonio Bolívar, Yauenkü Miguee
Colombia | Venezuela | Argentina, 2015
122 min.
Feature
World Cinema Section
A program of the American Film Institute, AFI Fest presented by Audi is a celebration of global cinema and today’s Hollywood. It is an opportunity for master filmmakers and emerging artists to come together with audiences in the movie capital of the world. AFI Fest is the only festival of its stature that is free to the public. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognizes AFI Fest as a qualifying festival for both Short Film categories for the annual Academy Awards®.
Connect with AFI Fest at facebook.com/Afifest, twitter.com/Afifest and youtube.com/Afifest.
Free tickets: http://afi.com/afifest/freetickets.aspx...
- 10/30/2015
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
The American Film Institute announced today the films that will screen in the World Cinema, Breakthrough, Midnight, Shorts and Cinema’s Legacy programs at AFI Fest 2015 presented by Audi.
AFI Fest will take place November 5 – 12, 2015, in the heart of Hollywood. Screenings, Galas and events will be held at the historic Tcl Chinese Theatre, the Tcl Chinese 6 Theatres, Dolby Theatre, the Lloyd E. Rigler Theatre at the Egyptian, the El Capitan Theatre and The Hollywood Roosevelt.
World Cinema showcases the most acclaimed international films of the year; Breakthrough highlights true discoveries of the programming process; Midnight selections will grip audiences with terror; and Cinema’s Legacy highlights classic movies and films about cinema. World Cinema and Breakthrough selections are among the films eligible for Audience Awards. Shorts selections are eligible for the Grand Jury Prize, which qualifies the winner for Academy Award®consideration. This year’s Shorts jury features filmmaker Janicza Bravo,...
AFI Fest will take place November 5 – 12, 2015, in the heart of Hollywood. Screenings, Galas and events will be held at the historic Tcl Chinese Theatre, the Tcl Chinese 6 Theatres, Dolby Theatre, the Lloyd E. Rigler Theatre at the Egyptian, the El Capitan Theatre and The Hollywood Roosevelt.
World Cinema showcases the most acclaimed international films of the year; Breakthrough highlights true discoveries of the programming process; Midnight selections will grip audiences with terror; and Cinema’s Legacy highlights classic movies and films about cinema. World Cinema and Breakthrough selections are among the films eligible for Audience Awards. Shorts selections are eligible for the Grand Jury Prize, which qualifies the winner for Academy Award®consideration. This year’s Shorts jury features filmmaker Janicza Bravo,...
- 10/22/2015
- by Melissa Thompson
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
★★★★☆ Despite eschewing colour in favour of the rich textures of monochrome, Ciro Guerra's Embrace of the Serpent (2015) manages to be one of the most vivid depictions of the Amazon committed to celluloid. Shot on sumptuous Super 35, the black and white photography lends itself to the film's sorrowful ode to a world devastated, but it is the ceaseless teeming life of the soundtrack that transports the audience into the the midst of the rainforest. They're there to witness the upriver voyages of two western explorers over three decades apart, whose parallel journeys bring into sharp relief the harrowing effect of colonialism on the Amazon and its peoples.
"The river is full of fishes; we cannot possibly end them," rages an interloping westerner when it is suggested that fish should only be eaten during a certain phase of the surrounding's natural cycle. This call to listen to nature, to hear the rainforest when it speaks,...
"The river is full of fishes; we cannot possibly end them," rages an interloping westerner when it is suggested that fish should only be eaten during a certain phase of the surrounding's natural cycle. This call to listen to nature, to hear the rainforest when it speaks,...
- 9/14/2015
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
A few minutes into Colombian director Ciro Guerra's "Embrace of the Serpent" we have met three of its four main characters, and they have encountered each other. In black and white, with period images of the Amazonian jungle reminiscent of Miguel Gomes' "Tabu," a canoe carrying a gravely ill white man, Theo ("Borgman" star Jan Bijvoet), is punted onto the bank by the loyal native tribesman who serves as his traveling companion. And on the bank stands a lone tribal shaman, Karamakate (Nilbio Torres), whose painted face, loin cloth, feathered armbands, phallic-looking necklace and erect, impassive stance seem an unspoken rebuke to the western-clothed native who has come to plead with Karamakate to save his white friend's life. That rebuke is soon spoken, however, in no uncertain terms: Karamakate has nothing but loathing for the white man who wiped out his tribe, and nothing but contempt for a...
- 5/17/2015
- by Jessica Kiang
- The Playlist
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