For its final film of the spring series, the Vernon Film Society will screen the Oscar-nominated Embrace of the Serpent, a film inspired by the real-life travel and exploration diaries of Theodor Koch-Grunberg, a German scientist and ethnographer who died of malaria in 1924.
Director Ciro Guerra fictionalizes Grunberg’s story of his search for a rare flower with life-saving qualities.
In the early 1900s, the ailing Grunberg (Belgium’s Jan Bijvoet) and his friend Manduca (Yauenkü Migue) convince medicine man Karamatake (Nilbio Torres) to paddle upriver to the village where Karamakate lived until it was destroyed by Spanish rubber barons.
Once there, Grunberg and Manduca hope to find the flower that will help bring Grunberg back to full health.
This heart-of-darkness tale is paired with a similar river voyage in the 1940s with Evan, a bearded botanist (Brionne Davis) seeking out old Karamakate (Antonio Bolívar Salvado Yangiamo), now starting to lose his visions and memories. The visitor is also searching for the healing plant that supposedly saved Theo’s life. They have parallel encounters, and their visit to a Christian mission is even more nightmarish the second time around.
Shot in black and white on location in Colombia, Venezuela, and Argentina, the film becomes a strange exotic quest that examines the impact of rapid colonization and the obsessive thirst for knowledge.
“Ultimately, Embrace of the Serpent is a mesmerizing, unforgettable film about the power of knowledge, and how it must be passed on through the generations. It’s not unfathomable that we’ll be seeing this film passed along, as well, to be studied and learned from for years to come,” said Travis Hopson, with Examiner.com.
Embrace of the Serpent screens Monday, June 13 at the Vernon Towne Cinema at the regular times of 5:15 and 7:45 p.m. Tickets are available at the Towne and the Bean Scene for $7 (cash only).