Colombian writer/director Ciro Guerra is a wunderkind and made his first film, 2004’s “Wandering Shadows” at the ripe old age of 23. While not the most well-known filmmaker internationally, at least not compared to the auteurs consistently hitting Cannes and overseas festivals, Guerra’s been in the Un Certain Regard and Directors’ Fortnight sections so far and his 2015 breakthrough film “Embrace Of The Serpent” was the first Colombian film ever to be nominated for a Best Foreign Language Oscar.
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We loved it. Jessica Kiang’s review called it, an immaculate “work of art, and one of the most singular cinematic experiences you could hope to have in Cannes, or anywhere really. It’s an absorbing, even thrilling head trip; Heart-of-Darkness voyage of discovery.” Suffice to say, you should be paying attention. And people are, his next film will star Robert Pattinson and Mark Rylance. Not too shabby.
Before then, Guerra has completed his next movie “Birds of Passage” (“Pájaros de Verano“), this time co-directed with Cristina Gallego, an executive producer and additional editor on “Embrace of the Serpent.” ‘Passage’ is set in 1970s Colombia when the demand for marijuana is rapidly increasing and farmers act quickly to become expert entrepreneurs. However, in the new drug trade, as families discover the advantages of wealth and power, the corrupting influence leads to tragic implications and violence.
Some of us thought, “Birds Of Passage” would be announced as part of the recently revealed Cannes lineup, but it was not to be, though Thierry Fremaux and Co. have said the full lineups are not complete, so who knows. If it doesn’t appear there, there’s still the Director’s Fortnight and or Venice or TIFF later this year.
The movie has been excitingly described as a “film noir, a western and a Greek tragedy” in its “depiction of a family disintegrating and torn apart.” No release date yet, but the first trailer has been released and you can get your first look at the movie here.