- dir. CIRO GUERRA
- Year. 2016
- country. Colombia
- run-time. 125 mins
- rating. 12A
£6.00 (£4.50 conc.)
Doors 19:30 - Film 20:00
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 Colombian director Ciro Guerra.
Filmed in stunning black-and-white, EMBRACE OF THE 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.
This is a visually stunning and epic story of the first contact, the encounter, approach, betrayal and, eventually, life-transcending friendship, between people from different cultures.
“A breathtakingly gorgeous Oscar-nominated drama that caresses your eyes with its visuals as it bangs you over the head with its message.”
“It is gripping, challenging, engrossing stuff, beginning to end. Seriously, what a film.”
“Throughout, the fragility of the native cultures and of the rain-forest environment that is their home is underscored by Guerra in this fascinating, melancholy movie.”
“This is that rare film that has the power to transform, to shake one’s belief system so thoroughly that one feels like a slightly different person walking out of the theater.”