The shaman and the snake
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The shaman and the snake |
| Original title | El abrazo de la serpiente |
| Country of production | Colombia |
| original language | Spanish , Portuguese , German , Catalan , Latin , Amazonian languages ( Cubeo , Witoto , Tikuna ) |
| Publishing year | 2015 |
| length | 125 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Ciro Guerra |
| script | Ciro Guerra, Jacques Toulemonde Vidal |
| production | Cristina Gallego |
| music | Nascuy Linares |
| camera | David Gallego |
| cut | Etienne Boussac |
| occupation | |
| |
The Shaman and the Snake (original title El abrazo de la serpiente ) is a Colombian adventure film that premiered on May 15, 2015 as part of the Cannes International Film Festival , in Colombian cinemas on May 25, 2015 and on April 21, 2016 also came into German cinemas. The film is based on the diaries of the German anthropologist and explorer Theodor Koch-Grünberg and the American biologist Richard Evans Schultes and was nominated in the category Best Foreign Language Film at the 2016 Academy Awards.
action
The German anthropologist and ethnologist Theodor Koch-Grünberg traveled to South America at the beginning of the 20th century to study the behavior of the natives in the Amazon region and perhaps to be cured of his mental illness here, because he heard about a plant that is supposed to grow in the rainforest and that he hopes will change his condition. There he meets the shaman Karamakate and is briefly called Theo by him and his tribe. Because Theo has never dreamed , whether asleep or awake, Karamakate believes that once he has learned to dream, he will be freed from his sick mind. He tries to make a change by giving Theo psychoactive plants. After eating, singing and dancing with the locals one evening, Theo notices the next morning that his only compass has been stolen. Theo immediately knows who is responsible for the theft and why. The locals in the Amazon orient themselves towards the sun and the wind. Theo does not want to leave the compass with them because he fears that if they use a compass, this knowledge could be lost. Theo argues with the leader and demands that the compass be handed over, but then gives up and finally sets off without the navigation aid. Karamakate points out to him that whites cannot prevent them from learning new things, since knowledge belongs to everyone.
Almost 40 years later, the American biologist Richard Evans Schultes also set out for the Amazon to investigate the use of plants by the people living there and their medicinal properties. Schultes meets Karamakate and thus the same shaman that Koch-Grünberg had met before and who survived as the last member of his tribe. Colonialists have exterminated his tribe and the angry, young Karamakate has become a broken man, plagued by self-doubt. He now feels himself as chullachaqui , which means soulless revenant , and has also lost access to the spirit world. Karamakate had already known then that progress always means destruction and that it was almost always just the search for rubber that brought the scientists into the rainforest. Rubber means death to him. The only thing that Karamakate has been able to preserve is his knowledge, especially about medicinal plants and those with hallucinogenic effects.
What connects Richard and Theo over time is not only their thirst for knowledge about the indigenous peoples of the Amazon, but also the search for a medicinal plant, and Karamakate can still orient itself by the sun and the wind and also has his knowledge about the healing power of plants, but also about their intoxicating effects. While searching for the yakruna plant , Richard and Karamakate roam the dense rainforest, pass majestic mountains and experience the wildness of the water, and gradually Karamakate is rediscovering its identity.
production
Staff and cast
The Colombian film director Ciro Guerra , who studied cinema and television at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia , did not only direct, but also the scriptwriting.
The Belgian actor Jan Bijvoet took on the role of the anthropologist and ethnologist Theodor Koch-Grünberg , who is only called Theo in the film. The role of Richard Evans Schultes , who unknowingly follows in the footsteps of Koch-Grünberg in the film, was taken on by the native American Brionne Davis . The shaman Karamakate, who meets the two researchers almost 40 years apart, is played at a young age by the Colombian actor Nilbio Torres Vargas from the Cubeo people , who was born near Bogotá , and at an early age Antonio Bolívar Salvador, one of the few Survivor of the Ocaina of Colombia, who, before taking on the role in the film, was the gardener of the local hospital in the Brazilian city of Tabatinga .
Filming
The shooting took place in the Amazon regions of Colombia . The film was shot for seven weeks in the Departamento del Vaupés , mainly on the Río Vaupés , a tributary of the Amazon that is part of the border between Colombia and Brazil , and on the fluvial of the municipality of Inírida , a wetland on the Amazon basin . Another week was filmed in Guainía and Cerros de Mavicure. The film was shot in black and white , which visually connects the two time levels in the film. Only one dream scene is in color. The production cost of the film was the equivalent of 1.4 million US dollars.
Film music
The soundtrack for the film comes from Nascuy Linare and was released in a digital version on January 22, 2016.
Title list of the soundtrack
- Embrace of the Serpent (Theme)
- Trance (Trance Aereo)
- Dantesque Celebration (Fiesta Dantesca)
- Acoutic River (Tema Brujula)
- Dudamel: Let the Children Play (End)
- Dudamel: Let the Children Play (Isla y Paramo)
- Dudamel: Let the Children Play - Sarabande (based on a piece by Georg Friedrich Händel )
- Dudamel: Let the Children Play (Arpegios)
- Dudamel: Let the Children Play (Minor)
Publishing and Marketing
The film premiered on May 15, 2015 at the Cannes International Film Festival and was released in Colombian cinemas on May 25, 2015. In February 2016, the film was shown at the Berlin International Film Festival as part of the NATIVe - A Journey into Indigenous Cinema special series, which focuses on cinematic narratives by indigenous peoples around the world. The first German trailer for the film was released at the beginning of March 2016. The film was released in German cinemas on April 21, 2016.
reception
Reviews
The film was able to convince 96 percent of the Rotten Tomatoes critics , with an average rating of 8.4 out of a possible 10 points, and was thus one of the best-rated films of 2016. Barbara Oswald recognizes in the film an apparent incompatibility of two world views and a great skepticism of large parts of the indigenous population towards the European occupiers and the science they brought with them, which the prejudiced Karamatake expresses towards them, who is initially very suspicious of both scientists. Martin Gobbin compares the film with Werner Herzog's Aguirre, the Wrath of God from 1972 and Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Tropical Malady from 2005, but also recognizes the very own style and the socially critical value of the film: Ciro Guerra's anger over colonialism can be felt in many scenes, and the drastic representations convey the injustice in a very emotional way .
Awards (selection)
Festival Internacional de Cine de Mar del Plata 2015
- Award for best film
International Film Festival of India 2016
- Awarded the Golden Peacock for Best Film
- Nomination in the Best Foreign Language Film category
- Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize
Web links
- The shaman and the snake in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Official website for the film (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Certificate of Release for The Shaman and the Snake . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry (PDF).
- ^ 9 Foreign Language Films Advance In Oscar In: oscars.org, December 17, 2015.
- ↑ Los indígenas nominados a los Premios Óscar con 'El abrazo de la serpiente' In: jetset.com. Retrieved February 3, 2016.
- ↑ 'Este es el momento del cine colombiano': Ciro Guerra. In: eltiempo.com. El Tiempo , January 18, 2016, accessed February 5, 2016 (Spanish).
- ↑ 'Embrace of the Serpent' Soundtrack Announced In: filmmusicreporter.com, January 12, 2016.
- ↑ Special event NATIVe - A Journey into Indigenous Cinema ( Memento of the original from February 10, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: berlinale.de. Accessed on February 18, 2016 (PDF; 7.2 MB)
- ↑ Maren Koetsier: 'The Shaman and the Snake': German trailer premiere for the Oscar-nominated adventure film In: filmstarts.de, March 6, 2016.
- ↑ The Shaman and the Snake In: Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved April 3, 2018.
- ↑ Top 100 Movies of 2016 In: Rotten Tomatoes. Accessed May 1, 2019.
- ↑ Eliza Berman: These Movies Were All Certified Fresh by Rotten Tomatoes in 2016 In: time.com, December 21, 2016.
- ↑ Barbara Oswald: The snake in the shadow of the jaguar ( Memento of the original from February 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: cult-zeitung.de - culture newspaper of the August Everding Theater Academy, January 3, 2016.
- ↑ Martin Gobbin: The Shaman and the Snake In: critic.de, December 10, 2015.
- ↑ Agustin Mango: 'Embrace of the Serpent' Wins Mar del Plata Film Fest. Oscar submissions from LatAm and Europe topped the awards in the main competition . In: The Hollywood Reporter . November 7, 2015.
