Francis Ford Coppola, in his 1979 masterpiece Apocalypse Now, stunned audiences by “the horror, the horror” that they had seen recited within the last few frames of the film. In Ciro Guerra’s Embrace of the Serpent (a very similar film when you come to think of it) there is plenty of “horror,” but unfortunately it lacks the “audience,” despite its sheer brilliance. Those of you reading this review have probably never heard of it. It is a Colombian film that was nominated for Best Foreign Film at this year’s Oscars and lost to Son of Saul (Hungary). When it comes to awards, I find it very difficult to choose a winner when all the nominated films are so distinctive, structured in diverse ways, and contain stories that are executed superbly. Nevertheless, there is always one that receives more votes, and it is always the story that is more relatable for the Academy.

   Embrace of the Serpent hangs itself on the Amazon, which is seemingly a battleground of native villagers, mercenaries, missions, cults, explorers, and colonials. The film follows two explorations, a German scientist’s in 1909 and an American scientist’s in 1940, along with a shaman named Karamakate to search for a rare medicinal plant that is native to the region. The sacred plant can help cure disease, but is the last hope to the amazon and the native cultures that are increasingly being destroyed by mercenaries and colonialists, who are devastating the land by taking the supply of rubber trees and destroying many sacred plants in the process. The stories are told in a non-linear structure that has many bends and turns as the two odysseys move along a river. Like Apocalypse Now, as the characters travel down the river, time reverses more and more until the release of tension. The film does not deal so much with the intention of Apocalypse Now that states “man and beast are not very different.” Rather, this film takes the standpoint that “Man is not too different than Man,” being that we travel in this cycle of life that does not evolve, but revolves. Cultures are destroyed and then replaced with one that is not any better than the last and so on.

   In one of the most pivotal scenes of the film, Karamakate states to one of the explorers after a fight, “I forgive you because I once hurt you in another time.” This is the essence of the story. We cannot continue to make a point to distinguish ourselves from other cultures because after all, we are all the same savages trying to do what we think is best.