BIRDS OF PASSAGE
****
Directors: Ciro Guerra and Cristina Gallego
Screenwriters: Maria Camila Arias and Jacques Toulemonde, from an original idea by Cristina Gallego.
Principal cast:
Carmiña Martínez
José Acosta
Natalia Reyes
Jhon Narváez
Greider Meza
José Vicente Cote
Country: Colombia/Denmark/Mexico/Germany/Switzerland/France
Classification: MA15+
Runtime: 125 mins.
Australian release date: 3 October 2019
Previewed at: Cine Latino Film Festival, Sydney, on 23 November 2018.
Birds Of Passage (Pájaros de Verano), directed by Ciro Guerra and Cristina Gallego, was the Colombian entry for the 2018 Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards but, although it made it to the first short list, it was not chosen in the final selection, unlike Guerra’s preceding effort, Embrace Of The Serpent. That film was a finalist in the same category in 2015 but missed out to Son Of Saul. Both films feature a unique visual style that make them stand out from the pack. Birds Of Passage is a compelling story about the origins of the marijuana trade in Colombia in the late 1960s and ‘70s, historically referred to in that country as ‘the bonanza marimbera’, when the vast profits made corrupted generations of tradition in the indigenous Wayúu society.
In the harsh, barren Guajira Peninsula in North-East Colombia, a young man, Rapayat (José Acosta), is endeavouring to make a substantial dowry in order to wed a beautiful woman from the tribe, Zaida (Natalia Reyes). He has contacts outside the community so, together with his flamboyant mate Moisés (Jhon Narváez), he initiates a plan to sell marijuana to a member of the US Peace Corps. “From little things big things grow”, as the song says, and before you know it the pair are presiding over a massive trade that just keeps getting bigger and bigger. Zaida is convinced by the clan matriarch Ursula (Carmiña Martinez) and her uncle that Rapayat will be a good catch. As the Wayúu’s wealth increases, so does their acquisition of expensive accoutrements, including the erection of a palatial mansion in the desert, despite Ursula’s insistence on upholding traditional codes. As profits mount, a war over the future of the drug trade breaks out and radically changes the community that had previously lived in harmony, united by the principles of honour, peace and tradition.
David Gallego’s cinematography beautifully captures the harsh monotony of the peninsula’s bleached-out plains, peppered with splashes of vivid colour provided by the tribe’s bright apparel. These visuals are accompanied by a haunting score from composer Leo Heiblum, which references the traditional life of the Wayúu. The lead actors compellingly depict the breakdown of the tribe’s long-established customs as wealth corrupts them and they start to live like ‘gringos’. Divided into five chapters, entitled Wild Grass, The Graves, Prosperity, The War and Limbo, the script follows the rise and fall of the illegal drug trade which, ultimately, determined Colombia’s future reputation as a lawless country run by criminal cartels. Theme-wise, the film reminds one of The Godfather trilogy, which also dealt with a family’s splintering over the trafficking of drugs, but Birds Of Passage delves into a more traditional, spiritual, indigenous society, albeit one tarnished by the same corruption of its values. That’s where the similarity ends, however, because Guerra and Gallego’s movie looks like no other. It is stunningly beautiful and mysterious.
Guerra maintains that, “…art is able to look at the tragedy of human experience and to still find the beauty in it…” As strange as that may sound, and violence aside, the co-directors (and a 30% Wayúu crew) have succeeded in portraying a story that contains both beauty, horror and mysticism - it makes for powerful, compelling viewing, transporting the audience to a realm that is rarely seen and visually unique.
Screenwriters: Maria Camila Arias and Jacques Toulemonde, from an original idea by Cristina Gallego.
Principal cast:
Carmiña Martínez
José Acosta
Natalia Reyes
Jhon Narváez
Greider Meza
José Vicente Cote
Country: Colombia/Denmark/Mexico/Germany/Switzerland/France
Classification: MA15+
Runtime: 125 mins.
Australian release date: 3 October 2019
Previewed at: Cine Latino Film Festival, Sydney, on 23 November 2018.
Birds Of Passage (Pájaros de Verano), directed by Ciro Guerra and Cristina Gallego, was the Colombian entry for the 2018 Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards but, although it made it to the first short list, it was not chosen in the final selection, unlike Guerra’s preceding effort, Embrace Of The Serpent. That film was a finalist in the same category in 2015 but missed out to Son Of Saul. Both films feature a unique visual style that make them stand out from the pack. Birds Of Passage is a compelling story about the origins of the marijuana trade in Colombia in the late 1960s and ‘70s, historically referred to in that country as ‘the bonanza marimbera’, when the vast profits made corrupted generations of tradition in the indigenous Wayúu society.
In the harsh, barren Guajira Peninsula in North-East Colombia, a young man, Rapayat (José Acosta), is endeavouring to make a substantial dowry in order to wed a beautiful woman from the tribe, Zaida (Natalia Reyes). He has contacts outside the community so, together with his flamboyant mate Moisés (Jhon Narváez), he initiates a plan to sell marijuana to a member of the US Peace Corps. “From little things big things grow”, as the song says, and before you know it the pair are presiding over a massive trade that just keeps getting bigger and bigger. Zaida is convinced by the clan matriarch Ursula (Carmiña Martinez) and her uncle that Rapayat will be a good catch. As the Wayúu’s wealth increases, so does their acquisition of expensive accoutrements, including the erection of a palatial mansion in the desert, despite Ursula’s insistence on upholding traditional codes. As profits mount, a war over the future of the drug trade breaks out and radically changes the community that had previously lived in harmony, united by the principles of honour, peace and tradition.
David Gallego’s cinematography beautifully captures the harsh monotony of the peninsula’s bleached-out plains, peppered with splashes of vivid colour provided by the tribe’s bright apparel. These visuals are accompanied by a haunting score from composer Leo Heiblum, which references the traditional life of the Wayúu. The lead actors compellingly depict the breakdown of the tribe’s long-established customs as wealth corrupts them and they start to live like ‘gringos’. Divided into five chapters, entitled Wild Grass, The Graves, Prosperity, The War and Limbo, the script follows the rise and fall of the illegal drug trade which, ultimately, determined Colombia’s future reputation as a lawless country run by criminal cartels. Theme-wise, the film reminds one of The Godfather trilogy, which also dealt with a family’s splintering over the trafficking of drugs, but Birds Of Passage delves into a more traditional, spiritual, indigenous society, albeit one tarnished by the same corruption of its values. That’s where the similarity ends, however, because Guerra and Gallego’s movie looks like no other. It is stunningly beautiful and mysterious.
Guerra maintains that, “…art is able to look at the tragedy of human experience and to still find the beauty in it…” As strange as that may sound, and violence aside, the co-directors (and a 30% Wayúu crew) have succeeded in portraying a story that contains both beauty, horror and mysticism - it makes for powerful, compelling viewing, transporting the audience to a realm that is rarely seen and visually unique.