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From the director of 2016 Oscar-nominee Embrace of the Serpent comes this epic, visually exquisite origin story of the Colombian drug trade, told through the perspective of an indigenous Wayúu family.
It’s the 1970s, and America’s burgeoning obsession with marijuana has made Colombian farmers suddenly rich. In the Guajira desert, a Wayúu family led by matriarch Ursula rises to prominence, but soon the trappings of wealth and power start a war that threatens to tear them and their ancient traditions apart.
Doubling down on the sensory experience of their past works, Colombian-born filmmakers Ciro Guerra (The Wind Journeys, MIFF 2009) and producer/editor-turned-director Cristina Gallego bring a unique perspective to bear on the time-honoured rags-to-riches drug saga. Almost mythical in its storytelling, Birds of Passage combines eye-popping traditional costumes and culture, an immersive atmosphere of surreal imagery and vivid sound design, and glorious widescreen cinematography that just demands to be seen on the biggest screen possible.
"Visually stunning … a south-of-the-border drug epic like you’ve never seen before. The super-saturated visuals give the entire experience a heightened, hallucinatory quality, as if fellow South American director Alejandro Jodorowsky had applied his trippy sensibility to something of genuine ethnographic significance." – Variety