Embrace of the Serpent

Embrace of the Serpent follows Karamakate, an Amazonian shaman who is the last survivor of his people. He lives in isolation in the jungle, and over several decades he is sought out by two scientists travelling through the Amazon in search of a rare healing plant, the yakruna. The first is the German researcher Theodor Koch-Grünberg, who needs the plant to recover from illness; the second is the American ethnobotanist Richard Evans Schultes, who arrives years later following the records left by earlier explorers. Each journey draws Karamakate deeper into the forest and into his own lost memories.

Ciro Guerra directed the film, his first feature in the chronological list of his work, and wrote the screenplay with Jacques Toulemonde. Cristina Gallego produced it. The cast includes Nilbio Torres and Antonio Bolívar, who play Karamakate at different ages, alongside Jan Bijvoet, Brionne Davis, Yauenkü Miguee and Luigi Sciamanna. Filmed across Argentina, Venezuela and Colombia, the production had a budget of about one million dollars and took a similar amount at the worldwide box office.

On TMDB the film holds a rating of 7.7 out of 10 from 529 votes, indicating a modest but appreciative audience. Its two leads share the role of a single character separated by time, and the story moves between their encounters rather than following a straight line.