The film open with a great vista of the jungle in Colombia. The sounds set the scene, helping the audience to immerse themselves into this mysterious journey. The black and white is powerful, but also intrigue us. Seen a jungle like this without appreciate their true colors make you want more. Now the sound surround us as well the language spoken which is one of the multiple indigenous languages.

“Embrace of The Serpent” is a film directed by Ciro Guerra, and tells two parallel stories of German scientist Theodor Koch-Grunberg and American scientist Richard Evans Schultes. Set in 1909 and 1940. Both of them experienced their journey thru the jungle with Karamakate an Amazonian shaman who is the guide in the search for the rare yakuza, a secret plant. In this journey the audience experience the critical evolution of society in the amazon shape their future. You see human interaction with technology as a way of creating new experiences but also a way of affecting traditions and traditional learning process and heritage.

In a scene you see Grunber showing an indigenous tribe how to use a compass, later the compass disappear. This cause a commotion between the leader of the tribe and Gurnber who is upset about this. His point is not about who stole it and why. Is the fact that indigenous tribe use stars to guide themselves thru the jungle, with a compass will loose that ability. Is the effect of using technology as a tool to make your life easier, but also to ruin your traditional learning. This also journey thru the unknown, how religion pretends to shape indigenous by destroying their essence.

“Embrace of The Serpent” is clever because show in two parallel universe the journey of Grunberg in 1909 and Schultes in 1940. The audience experience the progression of time, how society in part ruin the life of this people, by imposing new traditions and knowledge. Forcing them to change their ability to continue developing what they know, how they live, only killing what make them unique.

At the end this journey is experience first hand by one person in both periods of time. Karamakate. He understand how important is his life in the jungle, the respect and consideration of his heritage and how the presence of external characters can destroy it. He also face big challenges living there: Memories, learned traditions which can be lost if you don't share it with future generations. He cannot be corrupt, even Schltes offer him, a single dollar for his help, a true evidence of capitalism.

Ciro Guerra borrow from great films about journeys in the jungle. Apocalypse Now and Fitzcarraldo. Both films show a trip into a jungle filled with challenges in the hunt for one thing. In Apocalypse Now is a mission to eliminate Colonel Walker Kurtz a renegade against the establishment of the US Army. In Fitzcarraldo the search for rubber an element that is destroying indigenous people in Perú, because it’s constitute a new source of income, better than the life in the jungle. For “Embrace of The Serpent” the journey shows the power of rubber and how destroy the minds and life of indigenous people till their death.

“Embrace of The Serpent” is a powerful film that can leave you breathless by the power of the message, but also by the connection with Werner Herzog and Francis Copola style of filming and editing.