Embrace of the serpent, directed by Ciro Guerra of the César region, has become the first ever Colombian film to be nominated for a prestigious Oscar award.
On February 28, El abrazo del serpiente will feature in the 88th Academy Awards ceremony having earned a nomination in the category of best foreign language film.
Guerra, also known for films as Los viajes del viento and La sombra del caminante received the nomination for the film inspired by Colombia’s amazon region.
In an interview with The Bogotá Post Guerra explained why he decided to make a film featuring in the Amazon. “I wanted to take a journey to the unknown!” he said in June.
“For a Colombian there is nothing more unknown than the Amazon – it’s half the country but we don’t know much about it. I wanted to search for new ideas.”
“In that process I discovered the journals of the first explorers in the Colombian Amazon and I thought they were fascinating, they gave me a story to work with.”
Interview with ‘Embrace of the serpent’ director Ciro Guerra
The Colombian film will have competition from A war by Danish director Tobias Lindholm, Mustang by French director Deniz Gamze Ergüven, Son of Saul by Hungarian director László Nemes and Theeb by Jordanian director Naji Abu Nowar.
By Freek Huigen
