You are here:

Embrace of the Serpent

Name: Embrace of the Serpent
Director: Ciro Guerra
Released: 2015
Duration: 125 min

Representation Score

3.3/10

Limited

2015

Not Rated

Director

Ciro Guerra

Runtime

125 minutes

Average Rating

No ratings yet

New Showbiz Analysis

Embrace of the Serpent is a powerful film that challenges the Eurocentric 'explorer' myth by centering indigenous perspectives. It transforms a traditional adventure into a critique of systemic trauma and cultural erasure. While the film excels in its racial and cultural analysis, it remains limited by a male-centric structure. The lack of women's ability to drive the story and non-straight representation narrows the social scope despite the film's intellectual depth. Ultimately, the work challenges traditional hierarchies, framing Western modernity and capitalist expansion as predatory forces.

Watch this, not that →

Category Breakdown

Does Embrace of the Serpent have LGBTQ+ representation?

Minimal

The film does not include any non-straight relationships or challenges to the assumption that everyone is straight.

How does Embrace of the Serpent portray gender?

Limited

The film focuses on male characters and their roles, with very little involvement from women or challenges to gender hierarchies.

How racially and ethnically diverse is Embrace of the Serpent?

Excellent

The film highlights the perspectives of indigenous Amazonians, with Karamakate playing a central role that challenges typical cinematic structures.

How does Embrace of the Serpent represent religion and culture?

Excellent

The film criticizes Western capitalism and colonialism, emphasizing indigenous spirituality and holistic knowledge over Western science.

Does Embrace of the Serpent include disability representation?

Minimal

The film touches on themes of physical and spiritual exhaustion but does not feature characters whose stories revolve around disabilities.

Present on Screen

Highlights indigenous Amazonian perspectives and ability to act
Critiques Western capitalism and colonial expansion
Deconstructs the traditional 'explorer' narrative

Limited or Absent

Lacks female presence and gender diversity
No LGBTQ+ representation or critiques of the assumption that everyone is straight or cisgender
Focuses narrowly on male-driven ability to act and scientific exploration

Official Synopsis

The epic story of the first contact, encounter, approach, betrayal and, eventually, life-transcending friendship, between Karamakate, an Amazonian shaman, last survivor of his people, and two scientists that, over the course of 40 years, travel through the Amazon in search of a sacred plant that can heal them. Inspired by the journals of the first explorers of the Colombian Amazon, Theodor Koch-Grunberg and Richard Evans Schultes.

How are these scores produced? →