Embrace of the Serpent (2015) (Spanish & other languages)

Review

124min

Genre:       Fact-based, Adventure, Drama

Director:    Ciro Guerra

Cast:         Brionne Davis, Jan Bijvoet, Nilbio Torres…and more

Writers:     Ciro Guerra, Theodor Koch-Grunberg… and more

-Synopsis-

In early 20th Century South American rainforests; an American biologist enlists the help of an old indigenous isolated Amazonian shaman, to recreate a journey he took 40 years earlier with a German ethnologist to find a rare and powerful plant, in an adventure drama loosely based on the experiences of scientists and academics Theodor Koch-Grunberg and Richard Evans Schultes.

There have been plenty of films about the impact of European “settlers” on indigenous peoples of North America , and far fewer about South America; but with ‘Embrace of the Serpent’, Colombian writer/director Ciro Guerra has created one of  the most original depictions of the “White Man’s” global colonial ambitions, and one of the most transcendental “road trip” movies ever.

‘Embrace of the Serpent’ is largely a work of fiction in terms of narrative, but it’s heavily coloured by diaries of the life and travels of two men with shared experiences, separated by 40 years and depicted as the main characters in the film.

German ethnologist-explorer and academic Theodor Koch-Grunberg, played by Jan Bijvoet, who made one of the earliest and greatest contribution to the study of the indigenous peoples of South America, and whose work is the only link to the voices of tribes now long gone. And American biologist and ethno-botanist Richard Evans Schultes, a hugely influential scientist/academic and foremost authority on the understanding of plants and humanity’s relationship with them.

Both men are linked in the film by their shared quest to find the sacred and powerful “Yakruna” plant for very different motives, and by their reluctant geographical and spiritual guide “Karamakate”, powerfully played in his youth by Nilbio Torres and in old age by Antonio Bolivar. A “Cohiuano” shaman and last of his people, deeply resentful of the white man from personal experience and living a hermitic existence trying to preserve the legacy of his people, while simultaneously losing touch with it.

The films centres around the sacred plant and “Caapi” ritual which produces a powerful psychotropic brew, more commonly referred to as “Ayahuasca”, altering the consciousness of the drinker while often producing visions and psychedelic experiences.

Something which modern western society is quick to judge as mind-altering drug use, but which ancient civilisations have been using for millennia to connect to enlightening “dream states”, and which some academics believe may have influenced the evolution of our species.

‘Embrace of the Serpent’ is truly a unique and eye-opening cinematic experience; a river journey which meanders through the recent and devastating legacy of colonialism, industrialism, slavery and disease which have ravaged the ancient forests and its people.

But this is more than a story of the white man’s burden on the indigenous peoples of the “new world”; it paints vivid black & white pictures of a transcendental connection between all humanity, where materialism is stripped away, within the context of the nature which ultimately bore us all… but with no “hippie” new-age nonsense to annoy us.

 The film culminates in a visually striking psychedelic trip beyond the “real world” which is clearly inspired by ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’, indeed the legacy of Kubrick’s classic seeps out of what is also a unique journey of self-discovery, for both the characters and the audience.

The Bottom Line…

The unconventional nature and slow deliberate pace of ‘Embrace of the Serpent’ might limit its audience, but this affecting and captivating cinematic voyage is as enlightening as it is troubling and a welcome rarity in not only in mainstream film, but also foreign language and independent cinema.

Similar films you may like (Home Video)

The Mission (1986)

In the 18th century depths of the Amazon jungle, a group of christian missionaries struggle to protect a converted indigenous tribe from the brutal whims of Portuguese conquerors and their ruthless colonial aspirations.

Directed by Roland Joffé and starring Robert De Niro, Jeremy Irons and Ray McAnally among others.

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