BIRDS OF PASSAGE (PAJAROS DE VERANO)

Carmina Martinez     Jose Acosta     Jhon Narvaez     Natalia Reyes

     When the drug trade in Colombia began, indigenous people got involved, which marked the beginning of their end in many cases despite their having successfully resisted the Spanish invasion long ago and were never colonized.  Doyens of the tribes attempted to bridge their culture with that of drug trading, but the corruption of money and greed rendered this impossible.  

     This is a story about that time.  Ursula (Martinez) belongs to the remote Wayuu matrilineal community, which adheres to traditional beliefs, so Ursula has strict requirements for her daughter Zaida’s (Reyes) suitor Rapayet (Acosta) to come up with a huge dowry. He can manage to meet her demands only because he acquires a newly thriving business selling marijuana to Americans, which he gains access to through his assistant Moises (Narvaez), a wheeler-dealer par excellence who not only disregards traditional beliefs, but assumes there is a work-around for any law; and, he is hot-headed and impulsive. 

     Birds of Passage is as much an anthropological account of the indigenous tribes in Colombia as it is about the drug trade, although the two become intermixed.  Traditional beliefs butt up against the ruthless capitalist drug trade, and who wins is predictable.  But the movie is visually beautiful, the characters are understandable if not always admirable, and the plot is interesting enough to keep the viewer engaged.  It spans over a decade in time (the 1960s-70s), to illustrate the gradual erosion of the family and community, punctuated by periodic crises and violence.  It is also in that period of time when there was a global interest in psychoactive drugs, many of which were processed in Colombia.

     Directors Cristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra took care in how the Wayuu people are represented, partly by having natives make up 30% of their crew, who were active consultants in assuring the validity of the characters.  They were also interested in portraying the Colombian drug trade from the perspective of a family rather than from that of drug lords, as in most films about the drug trade.

     A standout in her performance as Ursula, Carmina Martinez plays the matriarch in a convincing way, showing authority as well as affection.  Jose Acosta as Rapayet shows well the struggle he has in trying to maintain cultural beliefs amidst the compromised values in the drug trade.  He shows pained sincerity when his friend/assistant gets out of line.

Birds of Passage manages to be a beautiful, educational film, poignantly portraying the inevitable friction that develops when a drug trade encroaches upon a native culture.

Grade:  A                                    By Donna R. Copeland

EMBRACE OF THE SERPENT

Nilbio Torres     Jan Bijvoet     Antonio Bolivar     Brionne Davis     Yauenku Migue

          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.

      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