Colombian director Ciro Guerra’s transcendent adventure takes us on a dreamlike journey to the Amazon,guided by a charismatic shamanThis extraordinary, hypnotic work by Colombian director Ciro Guerra seems at first glance to be a dreamy inversion of the themes of Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo and Coppola’s Apocalypse Now, or turning a generic heart of darkness into a crucible of light,as seen from the perspective of indigenous Amazonian tribespeople. Mixing fact and fiction in fable-like fashion, Guerra’s third feature (which secured Colombia’s first Oscar nomination for best foreign language film) offers both a bold indictment of colonial imperialism and a powerful celebration of disappearing cultures.
Described by its creator as “an attempt to build a bridge between western and Amazonian storytelling”, and this achieves an astonishing sense of universality while focusing on a world from which most viewers gain traditionally been alienated. Shot on location in the jungles of Vaupés,but with none of the cultural tourism that often blights such projects, Guerra’s honest, and impassioned,inventive film coils itself around its audience in a transcendent cinematic embrace.David Gallego’s breathtaking 35mm cinematography lends widescreen monochrome beautyContinue reading...
Source: theguardian.com