‘Embrace’ a voyage into the dark heart of colonialism

The Colombian feature “Embrace of the Serpent” is in varying parts an anticolonial screed, an exploration of the “noble savage” concept and a mystical trip down the river into self-knowledge.

Shot in bracing black and white, it nevertheless unfolds like a troubling fever dream, a response that South American rivers seem to bring out in imaginative filmmakers (Herzog, for one, who’s an obvious influence here).

Director Ciro Guerra is enraged by the depredations to his homeland caused by the European rubber trade, even as he laments of the cost of imperialism to its perpetrators who, in his view, have sold their souls for things that aren’t worth having.

The movie interweaves two river voyages by Western explorers — loosely based on real people — separated in time but linked in that both were led by the same native, a shaman named Karamakate who believes himself to be the last of his tribe.

The German explorer is sickly and rail-thin, but convinces Karakamate that he is not like other Westerners, and what’s more may be able to guide him to surviving members of his tribe.

By the time Karamakate (now played by Antonio Bolivar) agrees to accompany the American (Brionne Davis), he is an old man who senses that his powers are fading — his memories are unclear, and he can no longer interpret pictograms from long ago.

(Spoilers in this paragraph.) Near the end, the film, surprisingly, indulges in an old-school psychedelic scene of colorful and supposedly mind-blowing abstractions.

Creating this kind of otherworldly mood takes exceptional talent, and this is a film worth experiencing.

“Embrace of the Serpent” is Colombia’s entry for the best foreign language film Oscar.