Embrace of the Serpent – Polimi International Film Festival

Directed by Ciro Guerra. With Jan Bijvoet, Brionne Davis, Luigi Sciamanna, Nilbio Torres, Antonio Bolivar.
COLOMBIA, 2015 – runtime 125 minutes.

Original language with English subtitles – free event upon registration.

The film tells the story of Karamakate, an Amazonian shaman and last survivor of his tribe, who meets, decades apart, the two scientists and explorers Theodor Koch-Grunberg and Richard Evans Schultes (the film is inspired by their travel journals) installing with them a deep and controversial relationship. The two scientists travel to Amazonia in different periods but with the same goal: seeking the yakruna, a sacred healing plant. A journey for work purposes will soon become for both scientists an exploration of a nearly unknown culture and the connection with their most primordial essence.

The film won the Art Cinema Award in the Directors’ Fortnight section at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 88th Academy Awards.

“Like Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness” (and the movie it inspired, “Apocalypse Now”), the drama examines the idea of progress and what it means to be civilized”. Stephanie Merry, Washington Post.

“Guerra’s remarkable film dives deep into seemingly infinite forests, and deep, too, into the soul of man”. Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer.