Exploration, westernization and forced cannibalism were all topics in Ciro Guerra’s film, “Embrace of the Serpent”, which featured at this month’s International film night at Elgin Community College.

The film is set in the Amazon, around the early 1900’s, when rubber plantations were booming and indigenous people were being enslaved or killed by rich westerners.

The plot follows Karamakate, an Amazonian shaman, who acts as a guide and healer to two different explorers on two different expeditions, one taking place the early 1900’s and the other in the 1940’s. The film’s plot switches back and forth between the two, to show the effect of colonization throughout 40 years. Both explorers are searching the legendary yakruna flower that has the ability to create powerful hallucinations or “dreams”, and teach them great knowledge. The outcomes of both expeditions vary greatly, but constant themes intertwine the film nicely.

The message of the film deals with the largely damaging effect of westernization and colonization of indigenous people.

A scene in the film that depicts this with a shocking intensity is an instance where abandoned Amazonian children take their misunderstanding of Roman Catholicism from earlier attempts of westernization and end up creating their own cannibalistic cult as they get older. The attempt to ‘convert’ these native children to a certain religion shows how colonization even tries to affect native cultural beliefs.

The message of the film lingers on the countless lost cultures and lives due to the underlying ethnocentricity and misunderstanding of forced western ideology.

“Its wonderful movie that has to do with colonization of the west against native cultures. It’s something you can see in central-south America, western civilization taking over the native people, exploiting and taking all of their resources,” says Armando Trejo, host of this month’s international film night.

“Embrace of the Serpent” also touches on the sacredness of nature and how there are lessons to be learned from the earth. Throughout these two expeditions, the rapid decline of indigenous people, forests and wildlife is shown with an unflinching lens, giving the film a honest but harsh reality check. It allows the viewer to arrive at the conclusion that each bit of the earth is something to be appreciated and respected, not exploited.

“This film allows us to think about the past, and how it contextualizes itself in the present. We’re doing kind of the same stuff with oil and resources. It’s like a circle. This movie makes me think about that more,” said Trejo. “ I hope that students can attend more movies of this kind, it’s a kind of entertainment in a different way. It teaches a different kind of wisdom that Native Americans had.”

The film was shot entirely in black & white, making the film subtle in its presentation but striking and dramatic in its visuals. The cinematography was smooth and languid, but was able to hold the attention of the viewer without seeming bland.

“Watching this movie, I saw so much hate, hate’s not cool. There was just sudden bursts of anger in the movie, which were completely justified. But I mean, when people are trying to take away your beliefs and way of life and trees and shit,  I’d be pretty pissed too,”  said Maggie Newling, an attendee of ECC’s international film night.

ECC’s International Film Night was hosted by the Humanities Club and showed on Nov. 4 and Nov. 11 at 7:30 p.m.