Embrace of the Serpent

Deep in the Amazon rainforest of 1909 Colombia, the young shaman Karamakate (Nilbio Torres) is engaged by a dying German explorer (Jan Bijvoet) to aid in his hunt for a fabled flower with amazing curative powers. Their revealing odyssey--paralleled with the tale of how an older Karamakate (Antonio Bolivar) helped an American botanist (Brionne Davis) on his own quest for the plant some 40 years later--offers a telling commentary on colonialism’s impact upon the region, in director Ciro Guerra's remarkable effort. 125 min. Widescreen; Soundtrack: Portuguese and Spanish; Subtitles: English. In Portuguese and Spanish with English subtitles.