Film ReviewsEmbrace the Serpent (el abrazo de la serpiente ): written in the stars
May 12, 2016 Anchorage Press
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Embrace of the Serpent (El Abrazo de la Serpiente, original title) is a jewel that shines from the depths of the Colombian Amazon, revealing a part of colonial history from the perspective of the colonized. Embrace of the Serpent, directed by Ciro Guerra, was Colombia's official entry to the 88th Academy Awards; it also won the Art Cinema Award in the Directors' Fortnight section at Cannes Film Festival in 2015. The film signals Latin American cinema's continued renaissance, and the ever-growing voices of Indigenous people in Latin America as they peel off the once white-washed culture of colonialism.
Embrace of the Serpent tells the story of Karamakate, a solitary Amazonian shaman and cultural mediator who witnesses the impacts of Western industry and thought. The story is told through a structure that interweaves two different timelines in Karamakate's life-the young and the old. Guerra and his team are very cognizant and respectful in making key roles available to people within the Indigenous cultures. Young Karamakate is played by Nilbio Torres who lives on a branch of the Vaupés River and is a hunter by trade; his beautiful physique, is a result of genetics and his work. Torres speaks mostly Cubeo and some Spanish, Embrace of the Serpent is his first production. Old Karamakate is played by Antonio Bolívar Salvador who is one of the last survivors of the Ocaina people. In addition to his main role in the film, Bolívar Salvador was also one of the interpreters on the set. He's had some experience in film, though they haven't always been as positive as Embrace of the Serpent.
The story and script took over four years to bring to fruition, resulting in an intelligent and compelling story anchored in the historical and biographical accounts of two different scientists who explored the region. The first, Theodor Koch-Grunberg (Jan Bijvoet), was a German ethnologist who set out as part of an expedition to discover the source of Xingu River in Brazil. Just as an aside, this is the same Xingu that Edith Wharton wrote about in the short story of the same title, through which she uses comedy to call attention to the farce of class systems in Europe. The film places Koch-Grunberg's expedition to find a rare plant with the help of Karamakate in 1909. Karamakate's contact with the second explorer-American biologist Richard Evans Schultes (Brionne Davis)-is set 40 years later.
The contrast between the characters of Karamakate in the two time periods serves to reflect conflict, the death of many cultures and the transcendence of others. The irony lies in that the few surviving sources detailing the lost people of the Amazon are the diaries and accounts of those that directly or indirectly caused their disappearance. Regardless of this irony, Embrace of the Serpent is very humane and strikes a balance between conflicting value systems. Guerra is able to layer complex themes without forcing them; the plot is developed with such elegance that it leaves room for viewers to interpret it on their own-to judge or not to judge.
Embrace of the Serpent was made on a tiny (by cinematic standards) budget of $1.4 million, proving that great cinema can still be made with small budgets. The film is nothing less than gorgeous. It opens up with a wide scene of the Amazon and jungle that engulfs it, the entire production is shot in black and white, making the lights and shadows crucial to the tone of the film and the development of the plot.
Guerra explores the roots of contemporary Latin America by reaching into its pre-Colombian past to find the gaze of jaguar and the myth of the serpent that brings the cosmos to earth and mankind to the cosmos. The emotional depth of the film fills one with both a sense of loss and eternal hope. The film is not only a feast for the eyes, but also for the ears as viewers pick up words here and there-woven into dialogues-in Cubeo, Huitoto, Ticuna, Wanano, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Catalan, Latin, and English. Embrace of the Serpent is simply poetic.
Embrace of the Serpent shows at Bear Tooth on Monday, May 16 at 5:30 p.m.
Embrace of the Serpent tells the story of Karamakate, a solitary Amazonian shaman and cultural mediator who witnesses the impacts of Western industry and thought. The story is told through a structure that interweaves two different timelines in Karamakate's life-the young and the old. Guerra and his team are very cognizant and respectful in making key roles available to people within the Indigenous cultures. Young Karamakate is played by Nilbio Torres who lives on a branch of the Vaupés River and is a hunter by trade; his beautiful physique, is a result of genetics and his work. Torres speaks mostly Cubeo and some Spanish, Embrace of the Serpent is his first production. Old Karamakate is played by Antonio Bolívar Salvador who is one of the last survivors of the Ocaina people. In addition to his main role in the film, Bolívar Salvador was also one of the interpreters on the set. He's had some experience in film, though they haven't always been as positive as Embrace of the Serpent.
The story and script took over four years to bring to fruition, resulting in an intelligent and compelling story anchored in the historical and biographical accounts of two different scientists who explored the region. The first, Theodor Koch-Grunberg (Jan Bijvoet), was a German ethnologist who set out as part of an expedition to discover the source of Xingu River in Brazil. Just as an aside, this is the same Xingu that Edith Wharton wrote about in the short story of the same title, through which she uses comedy to call attention to the farce of class systems in Europe. The film places Koch-Grunberg's expedition to find a rare plant with the help of Karamakate in 1909. Karamakate's contact with the second explorer-American biologist Richard Evans Schultes (Brionne Davis)-is set 40 years later.
The contrast between the characters of Karamakate in the two time periods serves to reflect conflict, the death of many cultures and the transcendence of others. The irony lies in that the few surviving sources detailing the lost people of the Amazon are the diaries and accounts of those that directly or indirectly caused their disappearance. Regardless of this irony, Embrace of the Serpent is very humane and strikes a balance between conflicting value systems. Guerra is able to layer complex themes without forcing them; the plot is developed with such elegance that it leaves room for viewers to interpret it on their own-to judge or not to judge.
Embrace of the Serpent was made on a tiny (by cinematic standards) budget of $1.4 million, proving that great cinema can still be made with small budgets. The film is nothing less than gorgeous. It opens up with a wide scene of the Amazon and jungle that engulfs it, the entire production is shot in black and white, making the lights and shadows crucial to the tone of the film and the development of the plot.
Guerra explores the roots of contemporary Latin America by reaching into its pre-Colombian past to find the gaze of jaguar and the myth of the serpent that brings the cosmos to earth and mankind to the cosmos. The emotional depth of the film fills one with both a sense of loss and eternal hope. The film is not only a feast for the eyes, but also for the ears as viewers pick up words here and there-woven into dialogues-in Cubeo, Huitoto, Ticuna, Wanano, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Catalan, Latin, and English. Embrace of the Serpent is simply poetic.
Embrace of the Serpent shows at Bear Tooth on Monday, May 16 at 5:30 p.m.