The Oscars are just over a week away, and the Foreign Film category is always one that’s fun to keep an eye on. Not only does it feature great films, unlike the main categories which are discussed to death before Oscar night, the Foreign Film category tends to genuinely surprise. And one movie that could walk away with the big prize is "Embrace Of The Serpent," and today we have an exclusive clip.
READ MORE: Watch: First Trailer For Cannes Winner ‘Embrace Of The Serpent’
Colombia’s entry for the Oscars is directed by Ciro Guerra, stars Jan Bijvoet, Brionne Davis, Nilbio Torres, Antonio Bolivar, and Yauenkü Miguee, and centers on Karamakate, an Amazonian shaman and the last survivor of his people, and the two scientists who, over the course of 40 years, build a friendship with him.
"There’s an idea in many of the texts that explore the indigenous world that speaks of a different concept of time. Time to them is not a line, as we see it in the West, but a series of multiple universes happening simultaneously. It is a concept that has been referred to as ‘time without time’ or ‘space without space.’ I thought it connected with the stories of the explorers, who wrote about how one of them came to the Amazon following the footsteps of another explorer before him, and when he would encounter the same indigenous tribe, he would find that the previous explorer had been turned into myth," Guerra explained about his film. "To the natives, it was always the same man, the same spirit, visiting them over and over again. This idea of a single life, a single experience, lived through the bodies of several men, was fascinating to me, and I thought it would make a great starting point for the script. It gave us a perspective of the indigenous way of thinking, but also connected with the viewer who could understand these men who come from our world, and through them, we could slowly begin to see the vision of the world of Karamakate."
It’s a picture that we fell in love with at Cannes, with Jessica Kiang calling it "a work of art, and one of the most singular cinematic experiences you could hope to have." "Embrace Of The Serpent" is now playing in limited release. Check out the exclusive clip below.