In a year that has been rather bleak for grown ups Embrace of the Serpent stands out like a bright light. Intelligent, fascinating, anthropological...if it was a book it would be a real page turner. I loved everything about this film from the powerful presence of Nilbio Torres' & Antonio Boliva as the admirable and wise Karamakate to the critique of Western culture with its twisted, arrogant & so often brutal religion along with its insatiable misappropriation of other's wealth and culture for mere pieces of silver and the patient and sentient willingness of the central figure (deemed savage of course by European eyes) to bring life and understanding to the very German Theo, so stiff and attached to all the wrong things in life. It's beautifully filmed and there is not a single moment of tedium or narrowness as the story unfolds over several decades. Wonderful treat and it lingers long in the imagination after the film has ended. Frankly it's inspirational.

The way I saw it was, that Caapi (Ayahuasca) was calling the 2 white scientists via the spirits into the jungle, first with Theodor Koch- Grunberg, you can tell this when Karamakate has visions of the jaguar, telling him he must protect Theo after drinking Caapi, Karamakate realises that he must share the ancient healing brew with the white man before it is lost forever, but the anger he has for the white man is too strong and he ends up burning what he thinks is the last Yakruna. Somehow even after dying in the jungle Theo's diary's manage to make it back to the white man via Theo's guider companion Manduca, in the other half of the film many years on Richard Evans Schultes enters the rainforest met by an older wiser but inevitably lost Karamakate, he has lost all memory of his traditions and the art of making Caapi, Karamakate is chullachaqui an empty person unable to speak with nature any more or dream,Richard manages to find the location of Karuna through Karamakate's drawings on the rocks from years ago, Richard guides them to the plant with his compass, there in the mountains they find one last Yakruna flower, Karamakate saying ''you have to come one with it, it's our last hope'', Richard's white man ego still manifesting in the form of saying they need the rubber, Now I think he makes Richard drink it instead of saving the plant, because it's not the plant that will save humankind but the human soul itself. putting the emphasis on the teachings and the way of life than just the brew itself. I see this film as very prophetic, maybe the single most important juncture of human history as it all hangs on the balance of these Amazonian teaching's of Biophilia and the Transcendental ''spirit'' realm as our guiding force reaching the white man and dissolving our ego's to inevitably save it all from apocalypse. This In my opinion is the most powerful film ''as in the message'' ever made.

I always become interested in any film that is nominated during awards season, and that it how I came to find this Colombian/Venezuelan/Argentinian film, and it was rated well, so I hoped for something good. Basically it tells two stories, thirty years apart, both featuring the character Karamakate, an Amazonian shaman and last surviving member of his tribe, and both times travelling on a journey with a scientist to find the rare yakruna, a sacred plant. In 1909, German ethnographer scientist Théodor 'Theo' von Martius (Jan Bijvoet) from Tübingen has resided in the Amazon for years, he is very sick, travelling with his notes and a westernised local he saved from slavery named Manduca (Yauenkü Migue). Young Karamakate (Nilbio Torres) prolongs Theo's life by blasting white powder called "the sun's semen" (possibly a hallucinogenic) up his nose, but is reluctant to become involved a westerner and refuses his money, Theo is searching for the yakruna plant as the only cure for his disease, and the three set off in a canoe to find it. Years later, in 1940, American botanist Evan (Brionne Davis) paddles up to the Old Karamakate (Antonio Bolívar Salvador), he is hoping to complete Theo's quest, Karamakate does reluctantly agree again and assist, but he believes his knowledge is fledgling. Evan has a book of Theo's final trek, as he did not survive the jungle, Karamakate only agrees to help him as Evan describes himself as someone devoted to plants, but he may in fact have alternative purpose to find the yakruna plant. Both expedition stories play side by side, in 1909 Theo was left to die, and the plant was found but destroyed after being being abused and cultivated, against local traditions, and in 1940 only one plant remains and old Karamakate prepares it as a hallucinogenic for Evan to undergo a super- conscious experience. Also starring Nicolás Cancino as Anizetto and Luigi Sciamanna as Priest Gaspar. Both stories playing together are interesting as the characters travel upriver on the same mission, the black-and-white colouring for the film works well, there are good themes of religion, language and culture, and the cinematography is fantastic, all together it is a most watchable foreign language adventure drama. Very good!

This is a visually stunning film that is based on the diaries of Theodor Koch-Grunberg and Richard Evan Schultes – German anthropologists. It relates to one Amazonian warrior called Karamakate. He meets Theo in 1909 who needs the drug from a rare plant to cure his illness and Karamakate is the only person alive who knows where it grows.We have the parallel story some 30 odd years later when another 'scientist' turns up seeking the same drug – from the same man. Both stories are intertwined but both very different. It also sheds light on the crimes of the colonial past, the wickedness of the rubber barons and the callousness and bigotry of the missionaries but it is all done in an unfolding and mesmeric way.This is filmed in black and white but is stunning at capturing the beauty and majesty of the Amazon and the people. The acting is just superb – almost like you are being a voyeur on other people's real lives. It lasts for over two hours as well, but does not seem like it at all. One of the best films I have seen this year and for reasons that are leagues apart from what would normally make a film 'unmissable'. Needless to say I aim to watch this again as I am sure I will get more on subsequent viewings.