5 Jun 2016
★★★★★ "enthralling, politically tinged and psychedelic" The Guardian
"At once blistering and poetic...the ravages of colonialism cast a dark shadow over the South American landscape in Embrace of the Serpent." Variety
A Q&A with director Ciro Guerra follows the screening
Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language film
Embrace of the Serpent centres 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 Amazon during the last century in search of the sacred and difficult-to-find psychedelic Yakruna plant.
Embrace of the Serpent, dir. Ciro Guerra, Colombia 2015, 122 mins