Birds of Passage (2018) (Spanish and Wayuu language)

Review

125min

Genre:     Crime, Drama

Director:  Ciro Guerra and Cristina Gallego

Cast:       José Acosta, Carmiña Martínez, Natalia Reyes…and more

Writers:   Maria Camila Arias, Jacques Toulemonde Vidal, Cristina Gallego

-Synopsis-

A chronicle of the rise of an indigenous Colombian tribe, when an outsider marries into one of their prominent families and begins a drug smuggling operation, but while the riches grow so do the problems, as they drift further away from their sacred traditions and reap the consequences—in this unique tribal take on the drug trafficking drama from the makers of ‘Embrace of the Serpent’.

Three years after re-defining the ‘heart of darkness’ jungle survival drama with their transcendental  and psychedelic Amazonian odyssey ‘Embrace of the Serpent’, Colombian filmmakers Ciro Guerra and Cristina Gallego return with an epic native passion project which cost them their marriage—re-invigorating the crime family saga in their own inimitable poetic style with a tribal parable of greed and corruption, and a cinematic snapshot of the birth of the Colombian drug trade.

José Acosta stars as ‘Rapayet’, an indigenous Colombian returned home to his Wayyu people after too much time spent with the ‘gringos’, wedding the young ‘Zaida’ (Natalia Reyes) and marrying into one of the most respected local families, headed by her mother and fearsome matriarch ‘Úrsula’ (Carmiña Martínez). When a marijuana venture with his unpredictable partner ‘Moisés’ (Jhon Narváez ) turns into a local criminal empire, Rapayet and his family build an new dynasty—but the lust for power and profit soon warps their sense of self and threatens their ancient traditions, bringing ominous omens as feuds mushroom into an all-out war which threatens them all.

It would be easy to describe this as something akin to a Colombian tribal version of ‘The Godfather’ saga and ‘Scarface’ meets Werner Herzog’s ‘Aguirre, the Wrath of God’, with TV’s ‘Narcos’ and ‘The Sopranos’ thrown into the mix, and that wouldn’t be an inaccurate description. But ‘Birds of Passage’ breaks its own ground too, using the crime family trope to tell a beautiful but bleak and melancholy tale of innocence lost, identity forsaken and tradition destroyed, while reflecting the tragic recent past of an alluring country by setting the story around the ‘Bonanza Marimbera’ (or marijuana bonanza)—a period between 1975 and 1985 when the foundations of the country’s drug trafficking trade, and the ruthless Narcos who ran it, were laid in rural Northern Colombia.

The directors’ vision here is realised in truly vivid fashion, and after establishing their stylistic credentials in stunning black & white style with their previous film, the two directors and cinematographer David Gallego go full-blown Technicolor with ‘Birds of Passage’, expertly using natural light to capture the picturesque postcard beauty of both tropical and arid Northern Colombia, while adding colour and vibrancy to the period setting, and brightly brining to life Guajira rituals and traditions.

Powered by subtle and naturalistic performances all around—particularly from Acosta as the film’s stoic and steely ‘Tony Montana’-like central figure, and Martínez as the icy matriarch who will stop at nothing to protect her family—‘Birds of Passage’ adds a clash-of-cultures element to a classic crime parable about the corrosive nature of greed, power and ambition, as resentments, internal power struggles and shifting group dynamics come to a head.

As the film becomes more violent—with traditions and beliefs falling victim to desires and the lure of ill-gotten gains—and the way of the gun begins to take over, this also serves as warning story about those who live by the sword . . . and die by it. But the filmmakers resist the urge to go over the top, keeping the violence gritty but restrained and never threatening the film’s lyrical and poetic quality.

Ultimately all of the qualities on show add up to an intoxicating, powerful but nuanced crime drama, which builds on established genre tropes and classic narratives yet manages to look and feel like nothing you’ve seen before—adding colourful new plumage (pardon the pun) to the South American drug trafficking story, and staking its claim as a new modern classic of the crime family saga sub-genre.

With their latest film and first directorial collaboration, Guerra and Gallego have established themselves as a new force in Latin American cinema and a distinct voice in global film, using a passion for their country and its indigenous culture to tell very human lyrical tales tinged with melancholy and tragedy, giving us unforgettable reflections on a country scarred by the legacy of colonialism and the drug trafficking trade, but emerging from both anew. Here’s hoping that their separation will not curtail their careers as their cinematic paths diverge, while we eagerly await Ciro Guerra’s next project and first English-language film ‘Waiting for the Barbarians’, an adaptation of J. M. Coetzee’s classic novel.

The Bottom Line…

A wonderfully layered, textured and colourful Colombian crime family saga, and a tribal parable for the ages, ‘Birds of Passage’ breathes new life into the drug trafficking drama sub-genre, while vividly reflecting the country and culture in which it’s set, and delivering a powerful parable about greed and ambition—on the way to establishing its directors as a new Latin American filmmaking force to follow.

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