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- 2016
- Not Rated
- Oscilloscope
- 2 h 5 m
- 2016
- Not Rated
- Oscilloscope
- 2 h 5 m
Summary Embrace of the Serpent 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...
Directed By: Ciro Guerra
- 2016
- Not Rated
- Oscilloscope
- 2 h 5 m
- 2016
- Not Rated
- Oscilloscope
- 2 h 5 m
Embrace of the Serpent
7.8
Where to Watch
Summary Embrace of the Serpent 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...
Directed By: Ciro Guerra
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 31 Critic Reviews
82
94% Positive
29 Reviews
29 Reviews
6% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 31 Critic Reviews
82
94% Positive
29 Reviews
29 Reviews
6% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
This is that rare film that has the power to transform, to shake one’s belief system so thoroughly that one feels like a slightly different person walking out of the theater.
While its strange rhythms may not be for everyone, it does provide something unusual in today’s movies: a truly original experience for the mind and the soul.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 79 User Ratings
7.8
84% Positive
66 Ratings
66 Ratings
10% Mixed
8 Ratings
8 Ratings
6% Negative
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 79 User Ratings
7.8
84% Positive
66 Ratings
66 Ratings
10% Mixed
8 Ratings
8 Ratings
6% Negative
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
Powerful. Brilliant. Beautiful. Horrifying. An outstanding piece of cinematography on a subject that is far too overlooked and unexplored.
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The narrative jumps back and forth between the two time frames, rather than telling Karamakate’s story in linear fashion, and these juxtapositions deepen the film’s resonance.
Unique and intoxicating, an art movie that grips like a thriller.
The film is also comic, mysterious, and structurally ambitious, while offering numerous points of entry and perspective.
Ciro Guerra's excesses in arthouse symmetry tend to arrive in the service of a just and angry correctivism.
A sudden lurch into trippy abstraction at the end simply doesn’t work, but for the vast majority of the time this is a strong and original film.
Do yourself and favor and go see this movie.
Karamakate will take on a trip to discover what you've lost, to question your existences and numbness, Karamakate is the hero in this duality of myth and history, western civilization and amazon, dream and reality. It´s a psychedelic experience, ready to give you the most spiritual trip. Do you remember how to dream? what is to know? What's the difference between knowledge and wisdom?, and how teach or pass that information. It´s many thing and it´s none, but you won't be the same after watching it.
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Never before has a film so carefully and honestly explored the decay of indigenous mysitcism and the chasm between knowledge and wisdom. What this black and white journey down the Amazon river reveals is that the repercussions of colonialism needn't spawn from callous hearts of men but resides in the very fabric of western thinking.
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This film is totally mesmerizing, transporting the viewer to another world. One takes an almost mythical, shamanistic journey watching this film, mirrored in the story line of two Amazon explorers, each invoking the aid of a shaman to find the curative and mystical powers of an ancient plant. The black and white film was totally appropriate, adding to the sense of history the film alluded to of white explorers decades earlier. Curiously, it evoked images of films of Amazon tribes I had seen as a child in black and white movies on tv in the late 50's and early 60's. My only complaints were the literal translation of the foreign dialogue by someone obviously unfamiliar with the English idiom, which made it frequently border on pigeon English, though accidentally or perhaps even purposefully, it did add a bit to the mystical nature of the travels, trying to unravel the deeper significance of the characters' conversations. Also, the film unfortunately adhered to the age old paradigm of the White man's ignorance, in spite of his advanced civilization and the superior wisdom of the idigenous natives in spite of their primitive existence, which I find quite contrived, unoriginal and not very nuanced.
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An unusual story that repeats itself 40 years later in Amazonian rainforest in the first half of the 20th century. It is loosely based on diaries of two scientists studying that region. The movie is shot mostly in black-and-white but very picturesque. Many aspects of this film are outstanding: casting, performance, cinematography. But the story-line is too bizarre and shamanistic.
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Just been to see this movie with my wife, who loved it on lots of levels.
I, on the other hand, thought it the most boring film I have ever seen. It's like Deliverance but without the tension, the action, or the music. Also, it is in BLACK and WHITE!!!
When my wife said she wanted to see this film, I thought "Oh well, at least its set in the Amazon rain forest so the visuals will be stunning. Er, no, It is in black and white and looks like Scotland on a wet October afternoon. There is almost no action, no sense at all that you're supposed to be in a jungle, not one shot of an exotic bird or a waterfall. After two tedious hours the guy finally takes a trip courtesy of the local shaman, and whoever filmed that scene has clearly never taken a hallucinogenic substance. They don't seem to have tried so much as a joint. If you are a woman you'll probably like this film, if you are a bloke, bang yourself over the head with something heavy instead, it'll be more satisfying and you can do it in colour. (And at least something will actually HAPPEN!!)
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Production Company
Buffalo Films,
Buffalo Producciones,
Caracol Televisión,
Centro Nacional Autónomo de Cinematografía (CNAC) (I),
Ciudad Lunar Producciones,
Dago García Producciones,
EFD,
Hubert Bals Fund,
Instituto Nacional de Cine y Artes Audiovisuales (INCAA),
MC Producciones,
Nortesur Producciones,
Programa Ibermedia
Release Date Feb 17, 2016
Duration 2 h 5 m
Rating Not Rated
Awards
Academy Awards, USA
• 1 Nomination
International Online Cinema Awards (INOCA)
• 4 Wins & 14 Nominations
Premios Macondo
• 8 Wins & 8 Nominations
