EMBRACE OF THE SERPENT

Karamakate lives alone in the Colombian Amazon, the last of his people, as he believes. In 1909 he is reached by the German ethnologist Theo, gravely ill and searching for the sacred plant yakruna that is meant to heal him. Karamakate, who despises white men, helps him only because Theo promises to lead him to survivors of his tribe. Thirty years later the American botanist Evan comes to the old Karamakate with the same goal. Both journeys lead through river landscapes devastated by the rubber trade, and both end at a mission that holds the region’s children captive. “Embrace of the Serpent” (El abrazo de la serpiente, Colombia 2015) by Ciro Guerra follows the records of the researchers Theodor Koch-Grünberg and Richard Evans Schultes.

Shot almost entirely in black and white, modelled on photographs from early expeditions, Guerra tells colonial history from the perspective of those who suffered it. It premiered on 15 May 2015 in the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs in Cannes, where it won the Art Cinema Award; the first Colombian film to be nominated for the Foreign Language Oscar. It was shown at Around the World in 14 Films in Berlin in 2015.

Shown at the 2015 edition of Around the World in 14 Films.

All films 2015 · Film Archive