El abrazo de la serpiente

Plot synopsis:
The film tells two stories thirty years apart, both featuring Karamakate, an Amazonian shaman and last survivor of his tribe. He travels with two scientists, firstly with German Theo von Martius in 1909 and American named Evan in 1940, to look for the rare yakruna, a (fictional) sacred plant.
Theo, an ethnographer from Tübingen who has already resided in the Amazon for several years, is very sick and is travelling by canoe with his field notes and a westernised local he saved from enslavement on a rubber plantation named Manduca. Karamakate prolongs his life, blasting white powder called "the sun's semen" (possibly a hallucinogenic made from virola) up his nose, but is reluctant to become involved with a westerner and refuses his money. Theo is searching for yakruna as the only cure for his disease and the three set off in the canoe to search for it.
Many years later an American botanist, Evan (Brionne Davis), paddles up to a much older Karamakate (Antonio Bolívar) who has apparently forgotten the customs of his own people. Evan says he is hoping to complete Theo's quest and Karamakate does assist, again reluctantly, saying his knowledge is spent. Evan has a book of Theo's final trek, which his aide sent back to Europe, as he did not survive the jungle. The book includes an image of Karamakate, which he refers to as his chullachaqui, a native term for hollow spirit. Karamakate agrees to help him only when Evan describes himself as someone who has devoted himself to plants, although Evan's real purpose is actually to secure disease-free rubber trees, since the United States's supplies of rubber from South East Asia had dwindled due to the Japanese wartime advance.
Both expeditions feature an "Apocalypse Now"-style Spanish Catholic Mission by the side of an Amazon tributary, run in 1909 by a sadistic, lone Spanish priest who beats orphan boys for any "pagan" behaviour, and in 1940 by a delusional Brazilian figure who believes he is the Messiah. He only trusts the visitors when he believes they are the Biblical Magi, but Karamakate wins his respect when he heals his wife. By now the children of 1909 have grown into disturbed and violent acolytes.
In 1909, we are left with Theo, sick and having fled the Mission, arriving at a frontier post just about to be invaded by Colombian soldiers during the Amazon rubber boom, where the sacred yakruna is being abused by drunken men, and cultivated, against local traditions. Karamakate is furious and destroys it. In 1940, Karamakate does show Evan the origin of the plant in striking denuded dome shaped mountains (Cerros de Mavecure), allegedly the home of yakruna. He reveals one yakruna flower that is on the last plant – he has destroyed all the others – and prepares it for Evan. The preparation being hallucinogenic, aids Evan in undergoing a superconscious experience. A part of this experience has been shown in colour to signify its intensity. The film ends with a transformed Evan remaining enamoured by a group of butterflies.

Tags: violence, cult

Review:
Winner of the top Director's Fortnight Award at Cannes and Colombia's submission to the Oscars in the Best Foreign Film category, Ciro Guerra's ("The Wind Journeys") Embrace of the Serpent (El abrazo de la serpiente) provides a powerful insight into the effects of colonialism on an indigenous population.The film, in which nine different languages are spoken, follows two interconnected stories based on the travel journals of two Amazonian explorers thirty years apart, German scientist Theodor Koch-Grunberg (Jan Bijvoet, "Borgman") and American plant enthusiast Richard Evans Schultes (Brionne Davis, "Avenged").
The two explorers are accompanied by the Amazonian shaman Karamakate (Niblio Torres as a young man and Antonio Bolivar as the elder) not only to find the sacred plant for research purposes but to learn deeper truths about themselves and the nature of reality.
Karamakate, the last surviving member of his tribe, guards the secrets of Yakruna, a last symbol of independence for his people.Filmed in black and white by cinematographer David Gallego ("Cecilia"), it is the first film to be shot on location in the Amazon in thirty years and its gorgeous kaleidoscope of rivers and forests, and the blending of time creates a surreal, dreamlike atmosphere, fortified by native songs and chants.
When Theo tells him, however, that he has seen survivors of his people and will take him to them, the young shaman agrees as long as the white man follows his "prohibitions" about disturbing the natural flow of the jungle.
Though its loosely based on the diaries of the 2 scientist, the movie gives a collective account of what it would have been to witness those times and see the true dark side of the Colonial enforcements and the resulting destruction of culture, people, nature on a wide range of a scale.
This compelling and radiant black and white film takes viewers on an ethno-botanical journey to a faraway place, deep into the Colombian Amazon.
Yes, someone mentioned "2001: A Space Odyssey," but, considering the gorgeous black & white cinematography, and the theme of white men being guided to heightened consciousness by a shamanic character, I have to cite Jim Jarmusch's wonderful "Dead Man" in the American West.The two actors playing the young and older shaman were phenomenal.I don't think the scene of religious madness is out of place, because it contrasts effectively with the predominant theme of naturalistic and cultural spiritualism.Visually, it is spectacular.We need more movies like this.
Two delicately intertwined story lines, both inspired by travel journals authored three decades apart by two Amazonian explorers; German scientist Theodor Koch-Grunberg (Jan Bijvoet, "Borgman"), in 1909, and by American amateur botanist Richard Evans Schultes (Brionne Davis, "Avenged"), thirty years later.
Shaman Karamakate, the last survivor of his tribe (Nibio Torres-young/Antonio Bolivar-old) who has been chewed up and spit out as a lifelong victim of culture clash, and, as a result, defines himself as "chullachaqui", a walking empty shell zombie of a man.EMBRACE is light years from being a feel-good movie, yet, there is a "spirituality and focus which can help you transcend even a worst- case scenario of mistreatment and misfortune in life", that is transformational and which provides ground swelling inspiration!
This unique film would probably appeal to those who crave unusual true stories, those of you who enjoy Drama focused on a Clash of Cultures, and movies set in exotic locations!
Interesting look at the lifestyle of the Amazon people in the vanishing jungle where a shaman deals with two diverse characters , being first Colombian film nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film .
The amazing story of the relationship between Karamakate (Nilbio Torres -Young Karamakate-, Antonio Bolívar -Old Karamakate- and all the natives of the film are natural actors) and two scientists who seek a magic plant , Theo (Jan Bijvoet) and Evan (Brionne Davis) .
As decades apart , an Amazonian shaman and last survivor of his people , and two scientists who work together over the course of 40 years to search the Amazon for a sacred healing flower .
Ecological thriller that has in highlighting the destruction of the South American rain woods by the rubbers ; being based upon a real story , on diaries by scientists Theodor Koch-Grunberg and Richard Evan Schultes , both of whom delve into the Amazonian rainforest in search of a rare plant with medicinal and hallucinatory qualities, with the assistance of a local shaman on opposite ends of his own life journey .
Nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at Academy Awards this year, Embrace of the Serpent is an art-house feature that offers its viewers a journey back in time into the very heart of the Amazon rainforest while painting an absorbing portrait of the indigenous culture that was destroyed by colonial invaders.The story of Embrace of the Serpent covers two sets of events, one taking place in 1909 while the other occurs in 1940.
Both segments concern an Amazonian shaman who happens to be the last of his tribe, and covers his relationship with two scientists who are determined to find a rare sacred plant that has healing properties.Directed by Ciro Guerra, the film carves a fictional but highly original tale from the real-life accounts of the two scientists whose works have made a valuable contribution to the study of indigenous people of South America.
The performances from its cast carry no complaints as everyone chips in with fine contribution in their given roles, but the best input comes from the two actors who play the same character in different segments.On an overall scale, Embrace of the Serpent is deeply meditative in content but it isn't a film for all.
Breathtaking black & white photography takes us on parallel scientific expeditions down the Amazon River, with stories inspired by the travel journals of Theodor Koch Grunberg (1872-1924) and Richard Evans Schultes (1915-2001).
It's the first ever Oscar nomination (Best Foreign Language Film) for Columbia, and director Ciro Guerra's film certainly deserves any and all acclaim.The common link between the two expeditions is an Amazon Shaman named Karamakate.
The lost/forgotten cultures are reason enough for the natives to distrust white men, yet the mysticism and pride of the indigenous tribes are fascinating.The character of Karamakate is a pleasure to get to know, and the film has a great deal to say  and does so while being a visual stunning experience..
Embrace Of The Serpent is a film about an amazonian shaman played by Nilbio Torres and two scientist looking for a plant that could supposedly heal people and they have to work with the shaman to try and find it.lets get this out of the way first, this movie is so gorgeously shot, there is this one tracking shot that transitions the two scientist together and it stunning.
it was also so well acted, i actually did not see actors, i saw real men talking to each other and real men arguing and i forgot i was watching a movie, the best performance in this film was the older shaman played excellently by Antonio Bolivar.this movie has a non linear story line and i got so involved with these characters and the world they are in witch made this film perfect for me.A+.
'...the only way he could heal was to learn how to dream,'..the film is a journey encompassing 300+years of strife & conflict of two cultures,the Spanish colonial rule decimating the indigenous Indian cultures of South America to the point of extinction,compressed into a 2-hr.hallucinogenic movie;the jungle habitat where the Mayan civilization was born & thrived under the life giving waters of the .
In essence, this is a movie about how whites and native people interacted in the Amazon during the good old days, and the portrayal of those interactions has two modes for each race that we have seen many times before in countless films.
The way the movie flows between these two timelines, which run in parallel during the film, is intriguing and well handled, particularly from the photographic point of view.If you like glorious black and white photography featuring exotic scenes you'll appreciate the visuals; if you like predictable stories about whites exploiting "natives" and the pernicious, long-lasting effects of the exploitation you'll appreciate the plot.
A gorgeous-looking film set in the Amazon jungle."Embrace of the Serpent" tells two stories straddling two periods of time, linked by one character who appears as a young man in the first and an old man in the second.
Colombian director Ciro Guerra's third feature, a stunning-looking black-and-white adventurer recounts a shaman Karamakate's two quests of a sacred plant "yakruna" in the Amazonian jungle, on the request of two white scientists.The first one takes place around 1909, a young Karamakate (Torres) is approached by an afflicted German ethnologist Theodor Koch-Grunberg (Bijvoet, blistering with crazed assurance against his sickly incarnation) and his indigenous travel companion Manduca (Migue), to help them to find the plant to cure Theodor; and the second time happens in 1940s, a senile Karamakate (Bolivar) accompanies Richard Evans Schultes (Davis), an American biologist, to locate the last extant yakruna in the world.The two paralleled narratives sail shoulder by shoulder with sublime transitions from one to another, Karamakate, is the last survivor of his tribe, adheres to the wisdom and traditions which have passed on for generations among his people, only soon will die with him - respect the jungle and revere the nature.
The dissonance between him and his travel companions has never ceased to exist, it is not just as simple as the conflicting battle between the invading colonists and the aboriginal, Karamakate also deems Migue as a "betrayer" of his own kind, a former rubber slave has regained his freedom thanks to Theodor, adopts western attire and offers Theodor his utmost loyalty.En route, there are encounters with other dwellers of the jungle, a native tribe offers them hospitality but also has no qualm to steal Theodor's compass just because; a rubber slave pleads for death when Manduca upsets his rubber cans since it is nothing but demise awaits him if he fails to collect enough rubber; a puritan friar (Sciamanna), wantonly flogging local orphan boys by taking them under the wings of Christianity; more idiosyncratically, a self-claimed white-skin Messiah (Cancino), abuses his despotic reign over his ignorant followers, at the same place where the friar was almost 40-years later, its bacchanalian idiocy slyly signifies that idolatry and cannibalism are just one step away from each other.In these two journeys' final destinations, Kaiamakate takes on two polarising roles, one is the destroyer and another is the saviour, from a hotheaded stud orphaned and disoriented by rapacious intruders, and is desperate to preserve whatever has left in his knowledge vis-à-vis his people's heritage and erudition, to a sage old shaman can preach his philosophy with an even- tempered other-worldliness, the film surpasses its default vocation as an ethnographic curio and a shrewd moral tale pressurising on cultural diversity, reaches the stratosphere of spiritual equanimity, in its sole coloured images, a transcendental pattern of anacondas offers an abstruse glimpse of the origin of the universe, and bookends the mythical realm with elucidating symbolism.
That theme of taking from the bowels of the land has been played in the work of Werner Herzog (Aguirre the Wrath of God) and Francis Ford Coppola (Apocalypse Now), with the emphasis on compromising cultures more than being like "sordid buccaneers." Karamakate (Nilbio Torres and Antonio Bolivar), a shaman who is the last of his Cohiuano tribe, accompanies scientist Theo (Jan Bijvoet) into the Amazon to search for a sacred healing plant and maybe a new rubber strain.
One such adventurer, Priest Gaspar, has taken the Christ motif and made it his crazy own, right down to its cannibalistic undertones.Based on Theo's diary about his 1909 adventure and that of his successor, Richard Evans Schultes (Brionne Davis), 40 years later, Embrace of the Serpent continually shows the white man exploiting the natives and facing madness while doing it.
I like snakes but realize a significant number of folks don't...though the word 'serpent' is in the title!The story is told in an unusual manner--with the same native man being shown decades apart assisting two different white scientists as they go in search of some plant that supposedly has curative powers.
! Great movie, with very good performances,beautiful scenery, very well done!Without being an expert or a bold critic connoisseur film world and beyond being a simple,moviegoer common, I consider my humble opinion,the film is overrated, the use of white and black played down majesty to such loftylandscapes and still believing that he lacked "something" to the movie,I can say that it is very interesting to show vestiges of our ancient history, giving lessons to our Current and Modern society ....
'EMBRACE OF THE SERPENT': Four Stars (Out of Five) The critically acclaimed Colombian historical drama flick; about the relationships between an Amazonian shaman (who's the last survivor of his people) and two different scientists (in the 1909 and 1940 Amazon).
40-years later he's approached by an American scientist, named Evan (Brionne Davis), who's looking for the same thing.The film was beautifully shot in the Amazonia region of Columbia, and it's gloriously presented in black-and-white visuals.
The film was loosely based on the real occurrence that was written in the diaries of two scientists on their expedition into the Amazon's deep in search of something what intrigued the conflict between the two worlds.It portrayed the beautiful Amazon in the black and white pictures and I loved it because, it recreated the world that was over 100 years ago.
In the first, where a German scientist Theo, looks for a help from the last surviving young man from his tribe, Karamakate, to explore the jungle for the scientific research.
Although the decision to film in black-and-white might put off some viewers at first, the movie's cinematography doesn't lack impressive exterior shots and draws the viewer's attention more towards the characters.
Set in the early to mid-twentieth century in the Colombian Amazon, a shaman, who is the lone survivor of his tribe after it has been wiped out by the white man, guides two explorers on expeditions, forty years apart.
This is the story of the relationship between Karamakate, a nearly naked very muscular Amazonian shaman, the last survivor of his people, and two German botanists who work together overthe course of 40 years to search the Amazon for a sacred healing plant.
He meets Theo in 1909 who needs the drug from a rare plant to cure his illness and Karamakate is the only person alive who knows where it grows.We have the parallel story some 30 odd years later when another 'scientist' turns up seeking the same drug – from the same man.
The story of native people and shamanic traditions clashing with European world views, the exploitation of natural resources, and Catholic religious domination and extermination of native culture and language make for a compelling film all around.
The film shows how this is oppression happened at different levels, even from mestizos to natives.Karamakate is an Amazonian Shaman, last survivor of his tribe which was attacked by white-men who he resents.
Manduca is a native dressed in white-men clothes who plays the role of conciliator between cultures and to whom Theo freed from the bondage of rubber barons.During the trip, Karamakate teaches Theo lessons on how to respect indigenous people and nature, and to detach himself from material things, Theo sometimes accept these lessons and sometimes rebels against them.
One night they drink caapi a sacred plant (ayahuasca) and the next day Karamakate says a snake told him to kill Theo and a jaguar told him to protect him.At the first stop during their Amazon boat trip, we see how members of both cultures learned from each other, though sometimes reluctantly.At the second stop we see rubber exploitation and abuse that white-men have done and is still doing over the natives.On the third stop we find a community of children led by a Spanish monk who teaches them a form of Christianity based on fear of God, and rejection of their language and indigenous culture.
With Evan he finds a second chance to reconcile with white men.Evan is a scientist specialized in plants that guided by Theo's writings, arrives 40 years later seeking Karamakate's help to find the yakruna.
Later, when the Older Karamakate takes Evan on his journey, they encounter a cult run by a Jim Jones-like character who believes he's the Son of God. Karamakate heals the crazed man's wife who then invites his followers to consume his flesh.Shot in exquisite black and white, Embrace of the Serpent reminds us of the destructive power of "civilization" and its deleterious effect on indigenous cultures.
This is a decent story of one of the last of a certain Amazonian people leading two separate white men to a healing plant over a long period of time.
Basically it tells two stories, thirty years apart, both featuring the character Karamakate, an Amazonian shaman and last surviving member of his tribe, and both times travelling on a journey with a scientist to find the rare yakruna, a sacred plant.
Both stories playing together are interesting as the characters travel upriver on the same mission, the black-and-white colouring for the film works well, there are good themes of religion, language and culture, and the cinematography is fantastic, all together it is a most watchable foreign language adventure drama.
What makes the story so intriguing is the fact that the shaman Karamatake is helping two white scientists who try to reach the same thing, just at a different time.
The black-and-white Cinematography is providing the film with a strong sense of realism, even though the journey as a whole feels like a dreamlike exploration which reminded me of Apocalypse Now and The "Heart of Darkness".