I saw good and interesting films in 2015, including Sorrentino's "Youth" and Ariel Kleiman's "Partisan", but my supreme cinematic experience of the year was Ciro Guerra's masterful motion picture "El abrazo de la serpiente". There were no technical boasts, no shining sets, costumes or props, no explicit sex, Asian exoticism, European gloominess, no populism of middle-America or stylized violence, that could surpass this marvelous journey, full of strength, mystery and fascination, in search of a curative plant, a symbol of the values of the indigenous cultures of America (the continent), which have been trampled by conquistadors and their successors up to this day, all embedded in governments and all possessing the lands that the natives originally owned and lived in before they were displaced and robbed. Today those root people are exterminated, ignored and mocked by white and mestizo societies, so it comes as a pleasant alternative to see this tale narrated in two times of the same indigenous man (first as a young warrior, later as a wise old man), who in different stages of his life met two white foreigners searching for the healing plant, most probably with the plan of taking it and benefit from its commercialization (as in the medicine industry of today). On their way to find it they meet different persons, some in the verge of madness, until a final resolution points to the harmonious way of life between the natives and nature, leading to enlightenment. Thank you, Ciro Guerra, you give topmost dignity to our inner America and its cinema.
Review of Embrace of the Serpent
