Ciro Guerra

WAITING FOR THE BARBARIANS: Nuanced but Fails to Cross the Finishing Line
WAITING FOR THE BARBARIANS: Nuanced But Fails To Cross The Finish Line

After all the attention and commitment to the story, Waiting for the Barbarians leaves viewers without a solid and satisfying payoff.

London Film Festival 2019, Week One: Foreign Language Oscar Contenders, Creepy Shorts and Arthouse Johnny Depp
London Film Festival 2019, Week One: Foreign Oscar Contenders, Creepy Shorts & Arthouse Johnny Depp

Our first dispatch from LFF 2019 features reviews of And Then We Danced, System Crasher, Waiting for the Barbarians and more.

The Genre-Busting Power Of BIRDS OF PASSAGE
The Genre-Busting Power Of BIRDS OF PASSAGE

Ciro Guerra and Cristina Gallego’s Birds of Passage takes us to the Guajira Peninsula, a…

Milwaukee Film Festival 2018: BIRDS OF PASSAGE: This One Will Stay In Your Mind For Quite Some Time
Milwaukee Film Festival 2018: BIRDS OF PASSAGE

In the spring of 2016, Embrace of the Serpent, “[Y]oung people, when they see this…

IN FABRIC: The Devil Is A New Dress In Beautifully Sleazy Horror
Toronto International Film Festival 2018 Report Part 2: Fame (And Fabric) Monsters

In this full report from Toronto International Film Festival 2018, we are serving reviews of VOX LUX, IN FABRIC, and more!

Melbourne International Film Festival 2018: The First Weekend Report
Melbourne International Film Festival 2018: The First Weekend Report

In our first Melbourne International Film Festival report, we cover a collection of films, including Columbian crime dramas, a time-bending German war film, and an experimental exercise in young adult race relations.

Cannes 2018 Days 1 & 2: Birds, Wars & LGBT Romances
Cannes 2018 Days 1 & 2: Birds, Wars & LGBT Romances

Gus Edgar reports from Cannes Film Festival and shares some of his first two days in the French Riviera. He reviews Kenyan LGBT film Rafiki, Paul Dano’s directorial debut Wildlife, Colombian film Birds of Passage, and more.

Embrace the Serpent
EMBRACE OF THE SERPENT: Dark, Expressive, Haunting

The most damaging and offensive cliché in films that explore colonialism and its effects on indigenous nations is the notion of the noble savage, as well as the white savior. Approaching this film the inevitable trepidations set in, but were soon quelled, as Embrace of the Serpent proved to be simultaneously intelligent and willfully authentic. Director Ciro Guerra film adheres to territorial formalism without subverting the cultural atmosphere and originality.

Embrace the Serpent
EMBRACE OF THE SERPENT Trailer

When men find a world different from their own, their minds race with fanciful thoughts of what it might contain. The legends of the native people seem somehow plausible, and men risk everything to find the magical items squirrelled away in its depths. This narrative has played out innumerable times throughout history, often leading to devastation for the land that the men find so captivating.