Embrace of the Serpent
Director: Ciro Guerra Run Time: 125 min. Format: DCP Rating: NR Release Year: 2016
Starring: Antonio Bolivar, Brionne Davis, Jan Bijvoet, Luigi Sciamanna, Nicolás Cancino, Nilbio Torres, Yauenkü Migue
The Academy Award nominee for Best Foreign Language Film, EMBRACE OF THE SERPENT, opens Oscar weekend at Nitehawk!
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. 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.