Embrace of the Serpent

One of the best reviewed films of the year and a 2016 Academy Award-nominee, Ciro Guerra’s multi award-winning EMBRACE OF THE SERPENT is a breathtaking cinematic odyssey through the Amazon, following the quests of two European explorers (one in 1909 and the other in the 1940s) in search of a rare flower alleged to have healing properties. Inspired by the real-life journals kept by Theodor Koch-Grunberg (portrayed by Jan Bijvoet) and Richard Evans Schultes (Brionne Davis), the film charts each man’s treacherous and life-changing journey. Though decades apart, both are guided through the labyrinthine rivers and jungles by the same native shaman, Karamakate (Nilbio Torres, and later Antonio Bolivar Salvado Yangiama), the last surviving member of his tribe, who takes them deeper and deeper into a heart of darkness…