Embrace of the Serpent

Directed by: Ciro Guerra

2015 | Colombia | 125 minutes | Unrated

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. The film 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.

Best Foreign Language Film Nominee, Academy Awards, 2016