CULTURE: Lat Am Film EMBRACE of the SERPENT Oscar Nominated

Guest Feature Article on Oscar and Academy Award Nominated, as well as Canes, Toronto International Film Festival and Mar del Plata winner film EMBRACE of the SERPENT by Ciro Guerra (Special selections from Production Notes in collaboration with Creative Director of Celluloid Circus Sofia Serbin de Saklon).

At once blistering and poetic, the ravages of colonialism cast a dark shadow over the South American landscape in EMBRACE OF THE SERPENT, the third feature by Ciro Guerra. Filmed in stunning black-and-white, SERPENT centers on Karamakate, an Amazonian shaman and the last survivor of his people, and the two scientists who, over the course of 40 years, build a friendship with him. As of June 10th, the film can be seen in cinemas across the UK.

The film was inspired by the real-life journals of two explorers (Theodor Koch-Grünberg and Richard Evans Schultes) who traveled through the Colombian Amazon during the last century in search of the sacred and difficult-to-find psychedelic Yakruna plant.

Experience the trailer:

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

“Whenever I looked at a map of my country, I was overwhelmed by great uncertainty. Half of it was an unknown territory, a green sea, of which I knew nothing. The Amazon, that unfathomable land, which we foolishly reduce to simple concepts. Coke, drugs, Indians, rivers, war. Is there really nothing more out there? Is there not a culture, a history? Is there not a soul that transcends? The explorers taught me otherwise.

Those men who left everything, who risked everything, to tell us about a world we could not imagine. Those who made first contact, During one of the most vicious holocausts man has ever seen. Can man, through science and art, transcend brutality? Some men did. The explorers have told their story. The natives haven’t. This is it. A land the size of a whole continent, yet untold. Unseen by our own cinema. That Amazon is lost now. In the cinema, it can live again.” —CIRO GUERRA; Director of EMBRACE of the SERPENT

THE LOCATION

“In this moment, it is not possible for me to know, dear reader, if the infinite jungle has started on me the process that has taken many others that have ventured into these lands, to complete and irremediable insanity. If this is the case, I can only apologize and ask for your understanding, for the display I witnessed in those enchanted hours was such, that I find it impossible to describe in a language that allows others to understand its beauty and splendor; all I know is that, like all those who have shed the thick veil that blinded them, when I came back to my senses, I had become another man.” —THEODOR KOCH-GRÜNBERG, 1907

Many years after Koch-Grünberg’s diary entry, filmmaker Ciro Guerra and his crew have become explorers of another kind, ones who carried their cameras deep into the jungle to rediscover part of that unknown Amazonia. EMBRACE OF THE SERPENT, filmed during the course of seven weeks in the jungles of Vaupés, is the first fiction feature to be shot in the Colombian Amazon in more than 30 years. It is also the first Colombian film to feature an indigenous protagonist and to be told from his perspective.

But beyond Amazonia—which covers several states of the country and way beyond its frontiers, and is the refuge of hundreds of native communities, their customs and languages, many of which are now lost—this is also a story about friendship, loyalty, and betrayal. It is told with the valuable help of international stars Jan Bijvoet (BORGMAN) and Brionne Davis, as well as the natives Antonio Bolívar Salvador, Nilbio Torres, and Yauenkü Miguee, as well as dozens of representatives of the different tribes that dwell in this faraway land, so unknown to most Colombians and so coveted by foreigners.

The crew’s purpose was to approach the native communities and establish a relationship of mutual knowledge and respect, being transparent in every negotiation and always remembering that this is their land.

The screenplay was mostly written by Ciro Guerra during the course of four years, with co- writer Jacques Toulemonde coming on board for the final drafts, helping to shape a non- western tale for audiences used to western storytelling. It’s worth noting that, of the very few films that have been shot in the Amazon, almost all of them are told from the explorer’s point of view, and Amazon natives are often seen as primitive savages.

This was a multiracial, multicultural, multilingual set: apart from the Belgian and U.S. protagonists, the crew included people from Peru, Venezuela, México, and Colombians from Bogotá, Cali, Santa Marta, and Boyacá, as well as natives from the Ocaina, Huitoto, Tikuna, Cubeo, Yurutí, Tukano, Siriano, Karapano, and Desano tribes, all of them native of Vaupés. The exuberant landscape of the Colombian Amazon was both surprising and intimidating for the crew.

The chosen location is part of an unknown, unseen Amazon, the same place where the explorers whose diaries inspired the story (Koch-Grünberg and Schultes) found a great human and cultural richness. Besides all the support from the indigenous communities, as well as members of the Civil Defense and a nurse, the crew had the special protection of a “payé,” a shaman of the local tribes, who joined them and did all types of ceremonies to ask for the help of the jungle in keeping them safe from disease, animals, and bad weather.

The exuberant landscape of the Colombian Amazon was both surprising and intimidating for the crew. The chosen location is part of an unknown, unseen Amazon, the same place where the explorers whose diaries inspired the story (Koch-Grünberg and Schultes) found a great human and cultural richness. Besides all the support from the indigenous communities, as well as members of the Civil Defense and a nurse, the crew had the special protection of a “payé,” a shaman of the local tribes, who joined them and did all types of ceremonies to ask for the help of the jungle in keeping them safe from disease, animals, and bad weather.

Directed by CIRO GUERRA Written by CIRO GUERRA and JACQUES TOULEMONDE

Produced by CRISTINA GALLEGO

Starring JAN BIJVOET, BRIONNE DAVIS, ANTONIO BOLÍVAR SALVADOR, NILBIO TORRES, and YAUENKÜ MIGUEE Academy Award® Nominee – Best Foreign Language Film – Colombia Awards and Festivals 2015 Cannes Film Festival – Directors’ Fortnight – Winner – CIACE Art Cinema Award 2015 Toronto International Film Festival – Official Selection 2015 AFI FEST – Official Selection 2015 Mar Del Plata International Film Festival – Winner – Golden Astor 2015 Macondo Awards (Colombian Academy Awards) – Winner – 8 Awards including Best Film 2016 Film Independent Spirit Awards – Nominee – Best International Film 2016 Sundance Film Festival – Official Selection; 2016 Berlinale Film Festival Run Time: 125 minutes In Cinemas June 10th (tbc)

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This article was proudly made possible in partnership with CELULOID CIRCUS. Celluloid Circus is “a unique film events and promotion company championing the most exciting films from around the world, whatever their language”. They specialize in “connecting independent, arthouse and world cinema titles with global audiences”. Their clients include “film distributors, production companies, international festivals, embassies, cultural institutions, and consumer brands”.