Embrace of the Serpent-2015

Director Ciro Guerra

Starring Nilbio Torres, Antonio Bolívar

Scott’s Review #524

Reviewed November 23, 2016

Grade: B+

Embrace of the Serpent (2015) is a cerebral experience of complex storytelling, weaving two parallel stories set forty years apart.

It is an immensely creative film, crafting a black-and-white cinematic expressionism into its lurid walls.

Admittedly, I found the stories tough to follow at times, and the film contains an impressionistic quality, but I knew I was watching something creative and brave.

That is worthy of a hefty thumbs up.

The setting is the Amazon jungle, along the vast Amazon River, deep in the heart of South America.

The story spans 1909 and 1940, and both feature an Amazonian shaman who is the last of his people and deeply resentful of white men.

In 1909, he traveled with a dying German scientist, and in 1940, with an American.

Both look for a sacred healing plant with magical powers.

Both parallel stories feature a Spanish Catholic mission along an Amazon tributary.

In 1909, the leading priest was sadistic and abusive towards the young boys in his charge. Years later, the young boys are now hardened and grizzled.

Both stories also reveal the plant, though in different ways and with vastly different outcomes.

The best part, and much better than the storyline, is the black-and-white visuals. This gives the film a mysterious, old-world vibe that makes it feel like a film made in the 1940s, if not earlier.

In this way, it becomes a visual spectacle, especially as countless scenes unfold along the Amazon, where the characters float by canoe and are treated to the beauty of the water and the surrounding lush mountains.

It feels otherworldly, a part of a remote continent few see or appreciate.

This is my favorite aspect of the film.

The stories are complex and sometimes don’t make complete sense, and I found myself a bit confused throughout, but this may be because of the film’s clear art-film persona, which leaves it open to interpretation.

Both white men have different experiences with the sought-after plant.

I was left with some questions even after reading the synopsis. One of the men has a dreamy, hallucinating experience with the magical plant, but what happens after?

The shaman is an interesting character, as we see him as a young man and later as an older man living a lonely, resentful life.

Embrace of the Serpent (2015) is a perplexing, interpretive film with a magical quality; if the story is muddy, you can whisk away to a fantastic experience just by watching and enjoying the cinematic treats it offers.

Oscar Nominations: Best Foreign Language Film

Independent Spirit Award Nominations: Best International Film