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 (Wandering Shadows, The Wind Journeys). Filmed in stunning black-and-white, Serpent centers on Karamakate, an Amazonian shaman and the last survivor of his people, and two scientists who, 40 years apart, build friendships 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. The film was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2016 Academy Awards.

Read JBFC Marketing Associate Sarah Soliman’s take on this “hypnotic journey through the Amazon” on the JBFC Blog.