BIRDS OF PASSAGE

Colombia, 2018, 125 minutes, Colour.
Carmina Martinez, José Acosta, Natalia Reyes, Jhon Narvaez, Greider Maza, José Vicente, Juan Bautista Martinez.
Directed by Christina Gallego, Ciro Guerra.

Colombian director, Ciro Guerra, made the very striking ethnographic film about Amazon tribes in Colombia at the end of the 19th century, beginning of the 20th century, Empire of the Serpent, an Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Language Film. This film, which takes its audience further into the 20th century has won many awards nominations. Audiences looking for interesting and different serious films will find it well worthwhile.

There is a great deal of ethnographic material in this story of tribes and clans beyond Bogota, into the open plains, into the mountains of the Colombian terrain. And the setting is from 1960-1980, audiences perhaps remembering that it is in the 1980s that the cocaine trade is developed and is the era of Pablo Escobar and the intervention of the United States and the DEA.

In fact, this film is also about drug dealings with the United States but is very different indeed, a story of origins.

Teams are set with an elaborate ritual, a young woman making the transition from girlhood to womanhood, the clan gathering, the emerging of the young woman, her doing a ritual dance with her cloak and arms out spread like a bird, her chasing a little boy running backwards until he falls. However, she has a suitor, a young man represented by his uncle, a word-messenger, who succeeds with the dance and, while he wins the young woman’s hand, he has to supply a significant dowry.

We are immersed in this world of the clan, especially through the all-powerful presence of the mother, Ursula (Carmina Martinez), a powerful leader, protector of her daughter – and, as the drama continues, a dominating influence, even a kind of Lady Macbeth.

The young man, Rapayet (José Acosta – this is only films so far) trades coffee, working with his Indian friend, Moncha (Jhon Navaez). In 1968 they encounter some American Peace Corps representatives, anti-Communist, but spending most of their time smoking marijuana.

And this definitely brings us into the 20th century, the 1960s, the US and need for drugs, Rapayet and Moncho shown investing the coffee earnings into marijuana crops, making contacts (becoming more extensive, Americans even flying in to local airstrips), reinvesting their money and making larger and larger profits. Rapayet has enough of the dowry, marries, he and his wife having children and prospering.

By the 1970s, there is an extraordinary change in the life of the clans, from living in the desert, makeshift accommodation, to spacious mansions, lavish interior furnishings, clothes. But, there are difficulties, rivals in production and trade of the drugs, local chiefs, threats and violence.

The screenplay is divided into four parts, four Cantos as indicated on screen. We are taken through the transitions from poverty and hard lives to wealth and lives of ease, to further complications between old traditions and protocols and the consequences of the increasing capitalistic manipulation of trade and lifestyle.

Ultimately, there is war, a great deal of violence, a story that could be easily interpreted as “what does it profit to gain the whole world and lose one’s soul�. Over the years, many pessimistic stories can be described as “out of the depths/De Profundis� films, going deeply into the dark recesses of human nature and human oppression. But, there are some pessimistic stories where the cries from the depths seem not to be heard by anyone, not by God (and the clans here are traditional people but have no signs of religious belief or practice, not Christianity) nor by any human. The 2009 film by Gaspar Noe had the title “Enter the Void�. And, while Colombia continued with Pablo Escobar rising from seeming very little to drug lord and setting the course for drug wars for decades, this part of the story is very much an enter the void. Well worth seeing, but overpoweringly pessimistic.

1. A film from Colombia? Serious themes of Colombia in the 20th century? People, tribes and clans, traditions, changes, drugs and wealth?

2. Locations, score, local themes and drums?

3. The ultimately pessimistic tone of the film, the number of deaths, people acquiring wealth but to what purpose? Going into a void? The young girl as the only survivor? Her future?

4. Colombia, marijuana and its cultivation, the interest of the United States, the exports, the business? Soon to develop into the cocaine industry and Escobar?

5. The title, the imagery of birds throughout the film? In flight, individual birds and their colour, the crane walking around the floor of the house? The men and women themselves as birds of passage? Zaida and her transition, the bird dance with the little boy and with Rapayet?

6. The ethnographic background of the film? The interest of the filmmakers and their previous films? Colombia from 1960 to 1980? Out in the plains, the mountains? The terrain, dry, fields and crops? The tribal homes, huts, makeshift? The references to traditions, the various clans, interactions, the protocols, the word messages and their being sacrosanct, the breaking of the traditions and the protocols, consequent hostilities, war, destruction?

7. The setting of the tone, Zaida and her transition from girl to woman, the supervision of her mother, her face being painted? Rituals of the dance, with the young boy and his falling over? Rapayet, his arrival, the petition from his uncle, his performance with Zaida, his love, the arrangement for the marriage, the issue of the dowry, Zaida and her response?

8. Rapayet, his friend, the encounter with the gringos, 1968 and the Peace Corps, the individuals, their work, anti-Communist? Their wanting marijuana? Rapayet thinking of the possibilities, his working in coffee, selling it, the money, investigating marijuana, building up the crops, getting the American contacts, even planes flying in, the Americans and their verbal contracts? His making money? Enough for the dowry? His marriage?

9. Audiences watching this transition in the lives of the tribal people, their past, the 1960s, the drugs, deals, the increasing wealth, the building of lavish homes, the interiors and furnishings, clothes, lifestyles, swimming pools? The difference between 1960 and 1980?

10. Rapayet, as a character, introverted, quiet, shrewd, filling up the building, his relationship with his friend, the friend and his wasting the money, the contracts? Shooting the Americans? The clash between the two? The friend and his double dealing? The sexual encounter, the challenge, Rapayet shooting him?

11. The uncle, his serving Rapayet, the old-style, the go-between – and ultimately, with Anibal, and his death and the breaking of the traditions?

12. The years passing, the improvements for Rapayet and his wife, the birth of their daughter, their son? The growing prosperity? Seder and her devotion to her husband?

13. The mother, her strong presence at all time, the command, her approval of Rapayet, her grandchildren, the prosperity, the change of house, clothing, her authority? Appointing Leonidas the head of the clan?

14. Leonidas, as a boy, leadership, immature? Growing up, assertive, Anibal and his daughter, his offence, his death or his going to work, working for Anibal, then assaulting the daughter? The consequences?

15. Anibal, his role, chief, personality, his associates and advisers? The drugs and the dealings? The contracts?

16. Rapayet, the family difficulties with animal, bringing disaster, Rapayet not wanting war, his withdrawing, his wife and children?

17. The mother, the confrontation with Anibal, her promising to deliver Rapayet, her taking away her daughter and her children?

18. The war, the confrontation with Anibal and Rapayet, Rapayet’s death? Anibal, breaking the traditions, his being shot? The revenge motivation? The dealer and his getting ownership of the property? Anibal and his revenge, the destruction of the house and all inside it?

19. The daughter’s surviving, audience attention to her, growing up, with her mother, the scenes with her grandmother?

20. The storyteller, the narrative, the comments about the little girl herting the sheep, her inexperience, what future?

21. A powerful story? But a grim story about Colombia?