Embrace of the Serpent (2015)

The Very Best

8.7

Movie

Argentina, Colombia
Aboriginal, Catalan, German
Adventure, Drama
2015
CIRO GUERRA
Antonio Bolivar, Brionne Davis, Jan Bijvoet
125 min

What it's about

The epic story of the first contact, encounter, approach, betrayal and, eventually, life-transcending friendship, between Karamakate, an Amazonian shaman, last survivor of his people, and two scientists that, over the course of 40 years, travel through the Amazon in search of a sacred plant that can heal them. Inspired by the journals of the first explorers of the Colombian Amazon, Theodor Koch-Grunberg and Richard Evans Schultes.

The take

This movie is gentle and utterly chaotic, intimate and massive, beautiful and ugly... it tries to be so many things and somehow pulls it off. It tells two stories parallel in time, based on the real-life diaries of two European scientists who traveled through the Amazon in the early and mid-twentieth century. Their stories are some of the only of accounts of Amazonian tribes in written history. The main character and guide in the movie is a shaman who met them both. At times delicate to the point of almost being able to feel the water, at times utterly apocalyptic and grand... to watch this movie is to take a journey through belief systems, through film... and to be brought along by cinematography that is at times unbelievably and absurdly beautiful. Meditative, violent, jarring, peaceful, luminous, ambitious, artful, heavy handed, graceful... it's really an incredible film.

Active Streaming Deals

$50 Off DirecTV Stream

$74.99

$64.99

Active Streaming Deals

69% Off NordVPN + 3 months Free

$14.99

$4.99

Active Streaming Deals

50% Off Sling

$40

$20

Active Streaming Deals

49% Off ExpressVPN

$12.95

$6.67

Comments

Add a comment

What did you think? Who should watch it?

UP NEXT 

UP NEXT 

UP NEXT 

Frybread Face and Me (2023)

A gorgeous and tender coming-of-age addition to the Indigenous New Wave

8.0

Yeelen (1987)

An epic, spellbinding myth from Mali brought to life by one of Africa’s greatest filmmakers

8.0

Fanfic (2023)

A hopeful coming-of-age film that’s a landmark for Polish trans representation

7.2

Runs in the Family (2023)

Father and son bond through drag in this fun South African road trip

7.3

Last Call for Istanbul (2023)

A seemingly generic Turkish romance travel film, until it gets into its second half

7.0

Forgotten Love (2023)

The stunning third take of the classic Polish pre-war melodrama

7.7

The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020)

A star-studded and riveting legal drama with a blockbuster feel.

9.1

A Deadly Invitation (2023)

A Mexican whodunit that feels more like an infodump than a compelling murder mystery

5.5

Nightmare Alley (2021)

A psychological thriller of the highest quality, masked as an adult fairytale, by the great Guillermo del Toro

9.0

The Guilty (2018)

A minimalist, razor-sharp thriller that will have you gasping for air.

9.0

Curated by humans, not algorithms.

agmtw logo

© 2023 agoodmovietowatch, all rights reserved.