Birds of Passage

Set in Colombia during the marijuana boom, Birds of Passage follows Rapayet, a young Wayuu man who begins selling cannabis to visiting Americans and quickly builds a profitable trade. As the business grows, he becomes one of the wealthiest figures in his remote region, but the money brings conflict: greed, passion and honour collide, and a war erupts over control of the trade. That struggle threatens not only Rapayet and his relatives but also the traditions and culture of their Indigenous community.

The film was directed by Ciro Guerra together with Cristina Gallego, from a screenplay by María Camila Arias and Jacques Toulemonde. Guerra's earlier feature Embrace of the Serpent appeared in 2015, and he followed Birds of Passage with Waiting for the Barbarians in 2019. The cast includes José Acosta as Rapayet, Carmiña Martínez as Úrsula, Natalia Reyes as Zaida and Greider Meza as Leonídas, among 27 credited performers. It is a co-production involving Denmark, Colombia, Mexico, France and Switzerland.

Released in August 2018, the film runs 125 minutes and took about 3 million dollars worldwide. Audiences rate it 7.5 out of 10 on IMDb from roughly 14,000 votes, and 7.3 out of 10 on TMDB from over 300 votes. A critics' rating of 7.9 out of 10 from 165 reviews sits slightly above those audience scores, indicating strong approval from reviewers as well as viewers.