Inspired by the travel diaries of Theodor Koch Grunberg (1879–1924) and Richard Evans Schultes (1915-2001), who provided two of the earliest accounts of Amazonian cultures, Ciro Guerra’s Embrace of the Serpent (2015) remains one of the most potent works of recent world cinema. A story told through the eyes of a warrior shaman of the search into the heart of the Colombian Amazon for the mythical Yakruna plant, the film bears witness how colonialism, religion and the exploitation of rubber affects indigenous traditions and the environment to which they are inextricably linked. So, the stakes were high for Guerra’s next project. Co-directing with Embrace of the Serpent producer Cristina Gallego, the film doesn’t disappoint.“Told in an intimate, personal way. Our own way,”1 Birds of Passage is another formidable meditation on the corrupting forces of wealth and power, set against the backdrop of the marijuana boom of the 1970s.
- 2/16/2019
- MUBI
The Guajira peninsula is a complicated landscape filled with deserts, forests, beaches and steppes. It sits in the northern part of Colombia and Venezuela, jutting out towards the Caribbean. The Wayúu people call it home, and in Ciro Guerra and Cristina Gallego’s new epic, “Birds of Passage,” the Guajira becomes the stage for a tragic story of one family’s rise to power and fall to ruin.
“Birds of Passage” weaves a tale that is both familiar yet unique, yet it is so culturally tied to the Wayúu, it would be impossible to move it outside the Guajira. The film fits very comfortably in the genres of a gangster movie and an epic, with supernatural forces forewarning what’s to happen in the earthly realm.
Rapayet (José Acosta) is the film’s tragic hero, a man trying to rejoin his people after years working in the world beyond the Wayúu’s region.
“Birds of Passage” weaves a tale that is both familiar yet unique, yet it is so culturally tied to the Wayúu, it would be impossible to move it outside the Guajira. The film fits very comfortably in the genres of a gangster movie and an epic, with supernatural forces forewarning what’s to happen in the earthly realm.
Rapayet (José Acosta) is the film’s tragic hero, a man trying to rejoin his people after years working in the world beyond the Wayúu’s region.
- 2/15/2019
- by Monica Castillo
- The Wrap
by Abe Fried-Tanzer
Modernity is rarely a welcome concept for those rooted in tradition. What many see as progress is often decried as the destruction of long-held values and an attempt to push out members of the old guard who still adhere to customs they do not believe to be outdated. Every community must adapt to technological progress in some way or remain isolated from the rest of the world, a strategy that can’t last forever.
In Colombia's Birds of Passage, which made the nine-wide finalist list for foreign film but missed the nomination, the setting is the 1960s and the disruptive influence is the drug trade. Rapayet (José Acosta) becomes engaged to Zaida (Natalia Reyes), and, according to the customs of their indigenous Wayúu community, must present her family with a substantial dowry. Motivated by pride more than anything, Rapayet sees a business opportunity to provide Americans from the Peace Corps with marijuana.
Modernity is rarely a welcome concept for those rooted in tradition. What many see as progress is often decried as the destruction of long-held values and an attempt to push out members of the old guard who still adhere to customs they do not believe to be outdated. Every community must adapt to technological progress in some way or remain isolated from the rest of the world, a strategy that can’t last forever.
In Colombia's Birds of Passage, which made the nine-wide finalist list for foreign film but missed the nomination, the setting is the 1960s and the disruptive influence is the drug trade. Rapayet (José Acosta) becomes engaged to Zaida (Natalia Reyes), and, according to the customs of their indigenous Wayúu community, must present her family with a substantial dowry. Motivated by pride more than anything, Rapayet sees a business opportunity to provide Americans from the Peace Corps with marijuana.
- 2/15/2019
- by Abe Fried-Tanzer
- FilmExperience
It’s tempting to think we’ve seen it all when it comes to gangster movies — the Tommy-gunning tough guys, the cosa nostra capos and cutthroats, the tattooed yakuza hard men, the cartel-to-Chinese-triad thug lifers, the coked-out kingpins with their Everest-sized blow piles and ballistic “little friends.” Cristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra’s stunning, sumptuous Birds of Passage isn’t out to reinvent the wheel regarding drug-lord narratives, nor is it asking Tony Montana to hold its beer. But what it brings to the party by setting its near-folkloric narco...
- 2/13/2019
- by David Fear
- Rollingstone.com
Birds Of Passage (Pájaros de verano) The Orchard Reviewed for Shockya.com by: Harvey Karten Director: Cristina Gallego, Ciro Guerra Screenwriter: Maria Camila Arias, Jacques Toulemonde based on an original idea by Cristina Gallego Cast: Carmeña Martinez, José Acosta, John Nurváez, Natalia Reyes, JoséVicente Cotes, Juan Martinez, Greider Meza Screened at: Park Ave., NYC, 1/10/19 Opens: […]
The post Birds of Passage Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
The post Birds of Passage Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
- 2/10/2019
- by Harvey Karten
- ShockYa
So you’ve caught up with all of the big-name Oscar-nominated films and are ready to move past the dead zone that is January at the movies — what do you have to look forward in February? There’s a gangster movie set among the indigenous population of Colombia and an off-beat indie set among the forbidding snows of Norway; an expensive manga adaptation and a sequel made of Legos; a Liam Neeson ass-kick-a-palooza and a bright, shiny, blithely self-aware rom-com. Here’s what’s coming to a theater near you over the next month.
- 1/30/2019
- by Charles Bramesco
- Rollingstone.com
The 2015 release of “Embrace of the Serpent,” a psychedelic exploration of Colombian tribes in the Amazon, went a lot further than the filmmakers expected. Director Ciro Guerra and his wife, producer Cristina Gallego, traveled from Cannes to Sundance with their acclaimed movie, which ultimately landed a foreign-language Oscar submission. The newfound attention and modest commercial success enabled them to make a longtime passion project, “Birds of Passage.” That movie uncovers the roots of Colombia’s drug war in the rise of illegal trading within the remote Wayyu tribes, which were emboldened — and then nearly destroyed — by criminal enterprises across several decades.
The project took years of research, as well as delicate maneuvers to gain the approval of the Wayyu community, members of which comprised 30 percent of the production. Gallego took on co-directing duties with her husband for the first time, juggling long days that required tricky on-location shoots in rugged...
The project took years of research, as well as delicate maneuvers to gain the approval of the Wayyu community, members of which comprised 30 percent of the production. Gallego took on co-directing duties with her husband for the first time, juggling long days that required tricky on-location shoots in rugged...
- 1/12/2019
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Hakuna matata! This week, we finally got our first looks at the much-anticipated Lego Movie sequel and Disney’s live-action remake of The Lion King; an action-filled final trailer for Aquaman; Taraji P. Henson’s gender-flipped take on an old Mel Gibson comedy, What Men Want; a very cryptic clip for the Matthew McConaughey thriller Serenity; and some peeks at a biopic and a big-deal foreign crime drama. It’s the Thanksgiving-weekend edition of your weekly trailer round-up.
Aquaman
Ah right, there’s still one more big superhero movie left...
Aquaman
Ah right, there’s still one more big superhero movie left...
- 11/24/2018
- by David Fear
- Rollingstone.com
After his last movie–the trippy, transportive Embrace of the Serpent–became the first Colombian film ever nominated for an Oscar, director Ciro Guerra is back this year with another Academy Awards contender: Birds of Passage, which he co-directed with Cristina Gallego. The drama follows an indigenous family who gets involved in the drug trade in 1970s Colombia as the marijuana business booms. Ahead of a February release by The Orchard, the first U.S. trailer has now arrived.
Rory O’Connor said in his Cannes review, “Birds may follow the rise and fall narrative arc of basically every crime saga since Cagney and Edward G. Robinson began filling theaters in the early ‘30s, but by telling it from the indigenous perspective the filmmakers have made a movie not so much about myth-making and antiheros, but instead a fable about capitalism, lost heritage, and a death of the soul.”
Starring José Acosta,...
Rory O’Connor said in his Cannes review, “Birds may follow the rise and fall narrative arc of basically every crime saga since Cagney and Edward G. Robinson began filling theaters in the early ‘30s, but by telling it from the indigenous perspective the filmmakers have made a movie not so much about myth-making and antiheros, but instead a fable about capitalism, lost heritage, and a death of the soul.”
Starring José Acosta,...
- 11/20/2018
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
"You know what happens to a family in a war." The Orchard has released a new Us trailer for Colombian drug drama Birds of Passage, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in Directors' Fortnight. This highly acclaimed film is a crime epic spanning generations, similar to The Godfather or Scarface, focusing on two local gangs who get into the marijuana growing and export business. The two indigenous Colombia families begin a violent drug war that ends up destroying their lives and their culture. Birds of Passage stars José Acosta, Natalia Reyes, Carmiña Martínez, John Narváez, Greider Meza, Juan Bautista Martínez, Miguel Viera, and Sergio Coen. The posters for this have been stunning, a few of them can be seen below. The film is an impressive, sprawling crime saga boasting excellent performances all around. Here's the new official Us trailer (+ poster) for Ciro Guerra's Birds of Passage, direct from...
- 11/19/2018
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Ciro Guerra and Cristina Gallego title heading to France, the UK and Germany.
Buyers have been snapping up buzzy Cannes Directors’ Fortnight opener Birds Of Passage from Ciro Guerra and Cristina Gallego, with Films Boutique reporting a slew of key territory deals here.
The Berlin-based sales agent has licensed rights in: France (Diaphana), the UK (Curzon), Germany and Austria (Mfa), Italy (Academy Two), Spain (Bteam Pictures), Benelux (September Film), Portugal (Alambique), Poland (Against Gravity), Switzerland (Trigon), and China (DDDream).
Australia, Asia, Scandinavia, Brazil and Argentina remain in negotiation.
The Orchard holds North American rights to the drama about the origins...
Buyers have been snapping up buzzy Cannes Directors’ Fortnight opener Birds Of Passage from Ciro Guerra and Cristina Gallego, with Films Boutique reporting a slew of key territory deals here.
The Berlin-based sales agent has licensed rights in: France (Diaphana), the UK (Curzon), Germany and Austria (Mfa), Italy (Academy Two), Spain (Bteam Pictures), Benelux (September Film), Portugal (Alambique), Poland (Against Gravity), Switzerland (Trigon), and China (DDDream).
Australia, Asia, Scandinavia, Brazil and Argentina remain in negotiation.
The Orchard holds North American rights to the drama about the origins...
- 5/15/2018
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.