Originally, this post was supposed to be a review of the Waiting for the Barbarians movie starring Mark Rylance, Johnny Depp, and Robert Patterson. However, I stopped watching that movie halfway through due to a lack of interest. Still, I liked the directing of the movie and ended up seeking the director's name, Ciro Guerra.

I went to his Wikipedia page and it ended up highlighting one film that was nominated for the Oscars in its Foreign Language category; Embrace of the Serpent

Film Synopsis

The synopsis of the film is pretty straightforward. A sick German scientist seeks help from a shaman along with his friend. They go through the Amazon in Colombia to find the shaman before going on a deep, spiritual trip.

As I said, there's really nothing to say about the plot itself here. The film is more about the journey itself rather than the plot and goal.

What I Liked About The Film

The film is shot like it is an old classic despite being released in 2015. The style of filming compliments the plot itself, as it is supposed to be happening in the early 1900s. The wide shots are slightly too wide, some angles feel intriguing, and so much more comes from the style of the film.

The cinematography is brilliant, which is very difficult to accomplish as it was genuinely filmed in the Amazon. I have read enough about how hard it is to genuinely film in forests without big production budgets or resorting to greenscreens.

The tone of the movie is well-balanced. It is rare to have that in meditating-like movies where the characters either gain perspective too soon or for you as a viewer to be bored as the process is happening. You could really feel something bigger happening. Something you can't explain in the atmosphere.

The pacing is also great as it takes guidance from the classic black and white movies without the extra slowness or drag that you might feel today when you watch those.

I have watched the movie three times since last night, and it amazes me how I am still able to appreciate it so soon after watching it the first time. You could honestly screenshot every second of the film and see beautiful photography.

The film also deals with the complicated history of the region. The conflicts that arose during that time period. You get to see how the people who stuck their ground lived as their stories and remembered in lines uttered by the last one of them.

Nothing is done too obviously, nothing is fully explained. You won't leave this film knowing all the answers, but you will leave it with a great perspective as you experience how trauma feels with a closer look.

The soundtrack is also really good. It blends into the background and never tries to outshine natural sounds coming from the surroundings.

What I Didn't Like About The Film

Unless we're talking about popcorn movies, every film has its message or series of messages it conveys to the audience. I didn't like certain aspects of the messaging here. Which is normal really, I don't even think I liked a movie's message entirely aside from a handful.

History is also told at times through the characters' eyes rather than the factual approach.

But both things aren't a real problem and a nitpick on my part. I wouldn't have mentioned them if I had an actual thing I didn't like about the film.

In Conclusion

Embrace of the Serpent is a great film with so much to say, yet it is never overwhelming. It knows when to be intense and when to allow to let the actions breathe. Every aspect of it is done right and you can really tell that it's real with no fakeness about it.

My rating: 8/10

The film is very well-made, doesn't have a boring moment, is shot brilliantly, and the actors have done a solid job.

Karamakate (Nilbio Torres) is a young shaman, part of a forgotten and perishing tribe, who has reconciled with his loneliness, living in the Amazon River valleys. The German researcher Theo (Jean Bievoiet) and his guide Manduca (Miguel Dionisio Ramos) appear in his life as unexpected guests - the first one is on the border of death, and his friend asks the shaman for help. In the eyes of Karamakate, Theo is a representative of the white men who have exterminated his tribe, and although at first not willing to help, he is then aware that leaving his bitter heart to make such a decision would deprive himself of his humanity.

Years later, in 1940, Karamakate (played by Antonio Bolivar Salvado Yangiama) was visited by another explorer, the American Evans (Brion Davis), seeking the mystical plant yakruna. During the long years of his first encounter with a foreigner, the shaman has replaced his anger with a fatigue that makes his relationship with Evans more heartfelt. The theme of the "worthy savage" might sound overexposed, but Siro Gera's "Embrace of the Serpent" is dedicated to a surrealist study focusing on folkloric native tribes, the study of their spiritual customs and mysticism. In both journeys we witness, the white men embark on life-changing experiences-Theo understands that perhaps he is not the sane person he is considered to be. Typical for the Western man arrogance manifests in his propensity to see natives only in a romantic light. But the same arrogance is also the root cause of colonization attempts. Similar to Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" (as well as Francis Ford Coppola's "Apocalypse Now" masterpiece), "Embrace of the Serpent" explores the idea of civilized man, controversial progress, Christian practices, and hegemony. The first voyage culminates in a meeting with a sadistic Spanish priest, "saving the souls" of orphans, patrolling them with a whip, taking away their tongue, and so locked in the image of the Catholic man, the godfather of the "fierce cannibals." Years later, the mission of the same priest has become a fierce cult, whose leader is considered to be Jesus, encouraging self-deception and ritual suicide.

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The two Westerners are based on real people, although the yakurna plant is fictitious. Richard Evans Schultz's work in the Amazon basin goes beyond what has been shown in the film - his research has led to multifaceted discoveries in medicine, as well as a jump in the field of psychiatry. In 1979, he co-authored the book "Plants of the Gods: Their Sacred, Healing and Hallucinogenic Powers" with Dr. Hoffman (LSD's discoverer). The monochrome vision of Embrace of the Serpent is violated only in a magnificent scene where the colors explode and (like Андрей Рублёв's final) uncompromisingly reflect the viewer's mind. The old Karamakate is a rude man who has forgotten the customs of his own ancestors ("They are just paintings on the rocks now," he complains while looking at the petroglyphs), but agrees to help Evans look for the yakurna. When Evans describes himself as a devoted man, Karamakate says that this is the first sensible thing shared by a white man. The two unforgettable trips clarify a fairly beautiful and tragic picture, dotted with curses to "Lord of the Flies " and "Apocalypse Now," but feels like an original cinematic experience that has, in the words of Karamakate, "the worst of two worlds" .

Image source: 1, 2

Embrace of the Serpent

Reviews

Film Synopsis

What I Liked About The Film

What I Didn't Like About The Film

In Conclusion

My rating: 8/10

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