Embrace of the Serpent

Nominated for Best Foreign Film, Embrace of the Serpent serves up a meditation on colonialism's devastation of the Cohiuano, one of Colombia's indigenous tribes, who were brutally ravaged by the rubber industry and Roman Catholic missionaries in the 19th and 20th centuries. Set on the Amazon River, the story focuses on Karamakate, a native shaman who is played alternately by Nilbio Torres and Antonio Bolívar Salvador. Angry and grieving, Karamakate is the sole survivor of his people and over a 40-year period he develops a relationship with two different scientists. Filmed primarily in luminous black-and-white, Colombian writer-director Ciro Guerra's film is based on the real-life journals of two explorers who traveled through Amazonia during the last century. From 1903-09, German ethnologist Theodor Koch-Grunberg (Jan Bijvoet) journeys by canoe, seeking the sacred Yakruna plant with its unique hallucinogenic and healing powers. Decades later, Richard Evans Schultes (Brionne Davis), an American botanist, retraces his predecessor's path. Their explorations and experiences are intertwined, as they discard their baggage—the accoutrements of so-called civilization—and return to a more primitive natural state. An enlightening and thought-provoking film that is also evocative, exotic, and surreal in its primal eloquence, this is highly recommended. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include a “making-of” featurette (24 min.), a “Lessons from the Amazon” interview with costar Brionne Davis (15 min.), an “Adventure, Culture, History, Magic” behind-the-scenes featurette (10 min.), and trailers. Bottom line: a fine extras package for this Oscar-nominated film.] (S. Granger)