I began 2020 by getting thrown off guard by this haunting and hallucinogenic film, Embrace of the Serpent (El abrazo de la serpiente, 2015) by Ciro Guerra: Its double story, the ghostly black and white cinematography, and the theme of desperately seeking a cure in parts unknown.
The Amazonian Shaman Karamakate bridges the two tales, two journeys which are thirty years apart. The first is by Theo in 1909 and the second with Evan in 1940. Also uniting the two tales is the magical, medicinal plant which both travelers are seeking — the fictional yakruna, which harkens to one of the most well-known shamanic plants in the region.
“The only way he could learn to heal was by learning to dream.”
The anthropologist and Colombia expert Wade Davis might have good insight, but I am fascinated by the dream elements of this film and how it happened after watching that I began dreaming myself into scenes from García Márquez’s A Hundred Years of Solitude.
“You don’t know how to listen.”
There is something about the laughter in this film — combined with the sounds of drumming and running water and rustling leaves — that had me on edge listening intently. It makes you listen, intently, to the slightest sounds, the slithering of snakes, because it has you seeking your own path, your own journey, your own healing.
