EMBRACE OF THE SERPENT/ EL ABRAZO DEL SERPIENTE

Colombia, 2015, 125 minutes, Colour and Black and white.
Nilbio Torres, Jan Bijvoet, Antonio Bolívar, Brionne Davis, Yauenku Migue, Luigi Sciamanna, Nicolas Cancino.
Directed by Ciro Guerra.

The serpent serves as a mystical symbol in many cultures, a creative presence, sometimes devouring presence. In this film, the serpent is part of a mythology in the northern part of the South American continent, in Colombia.

This is a very powerful film, requiring attention, concentration, openness to other cultures, the power of realities beyond the rational.

The black-and-white photography shows this photographic technique at its best. At the end, there is something of an apotheosis, of art and symbols, echoes of creation, in bright and varied colours.

This is also an ethnographic film, the screenplay based on the diaries of two explorers from the West, a German in 2009, a European from Boston 30 years later. There are fragments of stories in the diaries and that is how the film proceeds, intercutting stories from each of the periods.

The common denominator is a shaman, a tribesman who has lost his tribe, isolated along the Amazon. Into his world comes the German explorer, ill, with a local Indian rowing his canoe, the Indian freed from indentured slavery in a rubber plantation. Later, this man will express his rage at the abuses and exploitation of the rubber barons. The shaman is persuaded that he can find his tribe and accompanies the voyagers, especially to find a special plant that has curative powers.

The explorer from 30 years later is then introduced, seeking the curative flower, and engaging the help of the shaman, the same man still voyaging along the Amazon.

There is an important stop in 1909, the travellers coming to a Mission, a very strict place, the Spanish missionary alone, his confreres having gone in search of others but never returning. There is a group of boys living there, dressed in robes, singing hymns, subject to severe discipline – and the visitors have to intervene to stop the whipping of one of the boys. a grim glimpse of an aspect of mission work, the imposition of beliefs on the natives, the forbidding of the use of native languages as pagan, the missionaries trying to protect their converts from pagan ways.

When the visitors arrive 30 years later, what they find is a cult, a self-proclaimed Messiah, the boys having grown up and becoming acolytes in the cult, with tonsures, with robes. The Messiah has still has some traces of Latin, words and sentences mixed up – but using them in rituals that draw on the Eucharist, some literal interpretations of consuming the body, a ceremony with a chalice. again, a corruption of Christian traditions.

The culmination of the film is the arrival of the latter group in the mountainous region of the Amazon, a betrayal by the visitor, but a mystical experience which the audience shares.

This film, from Columbia, invites its audience into an intensely different experience, an introduction to a “primitive” culture with a critique of a “civilised” culture. An Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Language Film of 2015.

1. The title, the role of the serpent in Latin American myths and pre-history? The title introducing the audience to myths and symbols?

2. The ethnographic background of the film, the diaries of the two travellers, their information, their experience, limited experience? The dramatising of the two journeys, 1909 and 30 years later?

3. The impact of the black-and-white photography, its beauty, the Amazon area, the river, the jungle, isolation, the villages, the setting of rubber the plantations, the Catholic mission? The repetition in the later journey? The mission, the cult and the Messiah? The attack of the Colombians? The final mystical experience?

4. The contrast between the rational and the symbolic? The mutual challenge? Stories of creation, the world, the place of humans, their destiny? Harmony with the jungle, preserving life in the jungle preserving humans? Issues of health, plans, drugs, dreams, shared experiences, shared consciousness? The image of the journey – into the interior, into oneself?

5. The cultures of the Amazon, traditions, allegedly primitive, the Natives there, their life, memories and meaning, upholding traditions, prohibitions for food and diet, life in accord with the jungle, learning wisdom?

6. The contrast with civilisation from Europe, from the 16th century, the conquistadores, the genocides? The activity of the Natives towards the whites, not understanding them, seeing them as exploiters? The 19th century and the emergence of the South American nations, the impact on the Natives? The importance of rubber, the rubber barons, their wealth, enslaving the communities? The role of the missions, faith, yet wary of pagan customs, forbidding pagan languages, seeing their Native cultures as demonic? The children to be saved, the boys, their language, dress, discipline and the whippings?

7. The image of Christianity, the Capuchin friar, his aggressive defence of the mission, accepting the travellers, the meal, Katamakate and his not eating the fish? Hearing the sound of the whippings and the cries, the sadistic friar, rescuing the boys? The friar and his story, 10 years, his companions going out searching and never returning?

8. The later return to the mission, the corruption of Christianity, the self-proclaimed Messiah, the children growing up, serving the Messiah as disciples, their garb, ropes, torture? Their interpreting the travellers as the Magi? The use of Latin, corrupted Latin? The Eucharistic overtones, the theology of Eucharist, consuming the body and the literal cannibalism of the Messiah, the chalice and the blood? The issue of healings, the cult behaviour? The Messiah, his madness, his wife, the healing? Katamakate and his poisoning them all and their dying?

9. Theo, in himself, Manduca as his guide, Manduca and his experience in the rubber plantation, Theo freeing him, his wearing Western clothes, the canoe? Katamakate and his initially being seen contemplating, the shaman, living alone? Initially hostile, the talk, the existence of his tribe, his going on the journey, sharing, his change, the quest for the cure of the plant, Manduca upset with the rubber trees, emptying the buckets, the one-armed worker and his wanting Manduca to shoot him rather than be tortured? The visit to the mission, their experience of the friar, saving the whipped child? Theo, his diaries – and the comment that this journey would make him whole?

10. Katamakate, his dignity, 30 years later, his being employed by Evan, contrast between his experience when young and when older, his dreams? The issue of the doppelgänger, but an empty shell wandering? The repetition of the journey? The experience of the mission, the madness of the Messiah, his decision to poison the members of the cult? Finding the flowers, the dying tree, Katamakate and his burning all the flowers? Going to the mountains, the visitor betraying him, wanting the rubber because of the war?

11. The image of the Jaguar, the close-ups, his eye?

12. The second traveller, following the old path, wanting to follow Theo, the quest for the plant? The experience of the Messiah, the poison, the burning of the plants? Going into the mountains? The betrayal, wanting the rubber, his drawing the knife, not killing Katamakate, the experience?

13. The film turning into colour, images of the snake, creation, the mystical journey?

14. The aftermath of the journey, Katamakate and the achievement of his mission? The traveller and his diaries?

15. The impact for different audiences, for South Americans, the world audiences especially Europeans?