Anyone remotely interested in anthropology and
other cultures should check out Embrace
of the Serpent, now open in select theaters. The writers Ciro Guerra (also director) and Jacques
Toulemonde Vidal drew from the diaries of two German scientists exploring the
Amazon looking for a sacred plant, yakruna. German Theodor Koch-Grunberg was there in 1909, and American
Richard Evans Schultes in 1940.
Both have the same shaman, Karamakate (Torres as the younger and Bolivar
as the older), the last surviving member of his tribe guiding them and
sometimes treating them for illness.
Theo also had a younger traveling companion whose freedom he bought from
a plantation to assist him, Manduca (Migue).
The story involves a beautiful scenic trip down
the Amazon, with stops for supplies at native settlements and a mission. Some of the stops became dangerous when
the natives regard them as enemies.
Theo encounters child abuse at a mission where the priest recruits young
boys and beats them severely if he thinks they have attracted the devil. At the same stop many years later,
Richard has to deal with a man who has decided he is the Messiah who keeps
tight reins on his people and demands to be worshiped.
But dramatic attention is also given to the
testy relationship between each scientist and Karamakate, who is convinced that
whites are evil and destroy every living thing in their path.
“Whites bring hell and death to the earth”, he says at one point. He derides the western scientists for cherishing their possessions, especially when they weigh down the boat on the river, their primary means of travel. Karamakate tries to get the scientists to appreciate and respect nature, whereas the scientists attempt to use logic and reasoning with him. They try to go along with his “treatments” but underneath are skeptical.
“Whites bring hell and death to the earth”, he says at one point. He derides the western scientists for cherishing their possessions, especially when they weigh down the boat on the river, their primary means of travel. Karamakate tries to get the scientists to appreciate and respect nature, whereas the scientists attempt to use logic and reasoning with him. They try to go along with his “treatments” but underneath are skeptical.
David
Gallego’s rich, black and white photography and Nascuy Linares’ music are as
enjoyable as the story. Guerra is
successful in presenting the different cultures in such a way, we can value
aspects of both, although he is much more critical of the white man for
destroying indigenous people’s lives and knowledge.
Embrace of the Serpent won the Art
Cinema Award in the Directors'
Fortnight section at the 2015 Cannes
Film Festival,
and it received an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film of
2015, the first such honor for a Colombian film.
An enlightening journey back in time
and space.
Grade: B+ By Donna
R. Copeland
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