A few minutes into Colombian director Ciro Guerra's "Embrace of the Serpent" we have met three of its four main characters, and they have encountered each other. In black and white, with period images of the Amazonian jungle reminiscent of Miguel Gomes' "Tabu," a canoe carrying a gravely ill white man, Theo ("Borgman" star Jan Bijvoet), is punted onto the bank by the loyal native tribesman who serves as his travelling companion. And on the bank stands a lone tribal shaman Karamakate (Nilbio Torres), whose painted face, loin cloth, feathered armbands, phallic-looking necklace and erect, impassive stance seem an unspoken rebuke to the western-clothed native who has come to plead with Karamakate to save his white friend's life. That rebuke is soon spoken, however in no uncertain terms: Karamakate has nothing but loathing for the white man who wiped out his tribe, and nothing but contempt for a native who might abet one of their number.
But Theo, an...
