Embrace of the Serpent — Int'l Trailer

added: Thu, Dec 31st '15

With only three feature films under his belt, Colombian director Ciro Guerra is leading a new wave of Latin filmmakers. The 34-year-old was just recently chosen as one of Variety's "10 Directors to Watch" for 2016. And from the looks of his latest directorial effort, the gritty black-and-white epic "Embrace of the Serpent," we can see why Guerra is earning such strong accolades.

Check out the international trailer for Guerra's Amazon jungle-set (Werner Herzog-esque) tale, about a local Amazonian shaman and his encounter with two different European explorers, played by Belgian actor Jan Bijvoet (Borgman, The Broken Circle Breakdown) and U.S. actor Brionne Davis.

Recently nominated for the 2016 Independent Spirit Awards for Best International Film and selected as Colombia's official entry in the foreign-language Oscar race, "Embrace of the Serpent" premiered to rave reviews at 2015's Cannes Film Festival. And it is currently scheduled to screen next month at Sundance, before opening in select U.S. theaters on February 17th.

synopsis:
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. Filmed in stunning black-and-white, 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 Evan Schultes) who traveled through the Colombian Amazon during the last century in search of the sacred and difficult-to-find psychedelic Yakruna plant.

directed by Ciro Guerra

starring Jan Bijvoet, Brionne Davis

release date February 17, 2016 (U.S.)