With its focus on the effects of exploration by white men on foreign lands, Ciro Guerra’s Oscar-nominated Embrace of the Serpent will inevitably be compared to Werner Herzog’s stories of savage nature, and while Guerra is investigating some of Herzog’s most well trodden themes, the chaos of man exists in the background, while the unspoiled sit front and center here.
Embrace of the Serpent centers on two explorers, separated by decades in time, searching for Yakruna – a fictional sacred plant with hallucinogenic qualities – but the movie is more about how outsiders – whether consciously or unconsciously – exert control. The repercussions of colonialism hover over the text even as these characters have “noble” intentions.
Loosely based on the adventures of real life explorers, Richard Evans Schultes and Theodor Koch-Grünberg, Theodor (Jan Bijvoet) and Evan (Brionne Davis) are men of science who do their best not to step on the toes of outside cultures.
Embrace of the Serpent centers on two explorers, separated by decades in time, searching for Yakruna – a fictional sacred plant with hallucinogenic qualities – but the movie is more about how outsiders – whether consciously or unconsciously – exert control. The repercussions of colonialism hover over the text even as these characters have “noble” intentions.
Loosely based on the adventures of real life explorers, Richard Evans Schultes and Theodor Koch-Grünberg, Theodor (Jan Bijvoet) and Evan (Brionne Davis) are men of science who do their best not to step on the toes of outside cultures.
- 2/1/2016
- by Michael Snydel
- The Film Stage
★★★★☆ Despite eschewing colour in favour of the rich textures of monochrome, Ciro Guerra's Embrace of the Serpent (2015) manages to be one of the most vivid depictions of the Amazon committed to celluloid. Shot on sumptuous Super 35, the black and white photography lends itself to the film's sorrowful ode to a world devastated, but it is the ceaseless teeming life of the soundtrack that transports the audience into the the midst of the rainforest. They're there to witness the upriver voyages of two western explorers over three decades apart, whose parallel journeys bring into sharp relief the harrowing effect of colonialism on the Amazon and its peoples.
"The river is full of fishes; we cannot possibly end them," rages an interloping westerner when it is suggested that fish should only be eaten during a certain phase of the surrounding's natural cycle. This call to listen to nature, to hear the rainforest when it speaks,...
"The river is full of fishes; we cannot possibly end them," rages an interloping westerner when it is suggested that fish should only be eaten during a certain phase of the surrounding's natural cycle. This call to listen to nature, to hear the rainforest when it speaks,...
- 9/14/2015
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
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