Pájaros de verano

Greetings again from the darkness. It's not unusual for movies to "trick" us into embracing a drug dealer, and even kind of rooting for them - despite the near universal condemnation of such folks when we are outside of a dark theatre. Co-directors Cristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra were the producer and director behind the Oscar nominated EMBRACE OF THE SERPANT (2015) about an Amazon tribe striving to hold tight to their way of life despite outside interference. This time out, they focus on the rural Guajira territory of Columbia, with its desert conditions and villagers committed to their own traditions.

The film is based on a true story and covers the time period of 1960-1980, and is separated by chapter titles that include the year and a hint of what's to follow. We first see Zaida (Natalia Reyes) as a girl in confinement as she prepares to be introduced as a woman to the villagers. This is one of the more elaborate rituals of the village, and it leads to Rapayet (Jose Acosta) asking for Zaida's hand in marriage. Her mother Ursula, a respected village elder, sets the dowry at what she believes in an unattainable level for Rapayet: 30 goats, 20 cows, and 5 necklaces. Ursula has unwittingly set off a chain of events that eventually brings the family money, power, and tragedy. How can a few goats and cows cause this? Well, when one is poor and needs to quickly assemble a large dowry, what better way than to enter the drug trade? And that's exactly what Rapayet does.

Rapayet's friend and partner in the coffee trading business, Moises (Jhon Narvaez), joins him in the transition of careers, and while Rapayet is content to build his empire quietly and under the radar, Moises runs amok with the power and money. Ursula is respected for her abilities as a dream reader, and she's constantly dousing Rapayet's business with the cold water of her visions ... worried mostly about the safety of her daughter Zaida. By 1971, Rapayet's business of peddling marijuana to gringos is booming, and by 1979 (in a chapter entitled "Prosperity") we see the results: a mansion-fortress in the desert protected by guards with automatic weaponry (a sure sign that bad news is on the way).

What began as a look at peaceful remote villagers sticking to the traditional path of their ancestors, transforms into a drug war featuring cartel mobsters. Cinematographer David Gallego contrasts the beauty and simplicity of traditions with the danger and violence of new money and new world order. Leonardo Heiblum's score is a terrific complement as well. The infancy of the Columbian drug trade presented here conveniently places blame on the free-spirited youngsters of the Peace Corps; while the story plays out like a Greek tragedy, replete with mixed messages on revenge, capitalism, tradition, greed, and family ties. It's a rags-to-riches story that pulls no punches when it comes to the price paid for taking an illicit shortcut. It's a path that can destroy lives and culture.

... but birds can sing this story so it can remain forever.

My favourite parts of the film had to do with the cantors singing about their own view on the happenings while the inspiring photography drives us into another world. In fact many different worlds, considering we're led from the desert to the foggy mountains to the beach.

A sui generis gangster movie where indigenous traditions, folklore, religion and tribal ways of life take us through this journey of a family being torn by its own ambition of being thriving and united. But also - and probably more important for the author indulging in the showcase of such folklore - a story about the modern world destroying the old one.

I had reviewed "El Abrazo de la Serpiente" by Guerra (with a 4 out of 10.. getting myself a lot of bad votes), and my curiosity towards this movie started with the trailer as it was released: EAdlS might have been a bad movie, but the basic material wasn't bad at all - this new endeavour should be better, embracing the easier-to-digest ganster genre. And here we are: despite a certain slow pace and the obvious constant lingering on the local culture which lots of people might not be fond of, this is obviously a huge improvement.

Regarding the weak points I find the direction very static: most of what happens feels like happening on a stage where actors are all well ordered in rows or ensembles positioned perfectly for the viewer, whether they are talking, negotiating or killing each other. Definetely not realistic and contrary to any action-movie standard.

Also the conclusion, though furtunately avoiding the stupid gangster movie traditional tropes, feels totally underwhelming: the writers could have found something in line with the rest of the movie without leaving the viewer disappointed with such a forgettable ending.

I don't know. Maybe in 50 years we'll be considerig Mr Guerra like Antonioni, and people like me, just idiots unable to get his art. I don't think so but we'll see.

Anyways a great movie. Ty to all involved.

This film is without a doubt a thought- provoking, chaotic and memorable experience. A lot of films choose to talk about the drug wars and the effects that power and money can have to humans, but this one feels like no other. It is griping and intense and handles its subject material in the best of ways. It is obvious that the creator of the film did everything he could so that the movie feels realistic and interesting to the viewer. Its beautiful and colorful visuals, the exceptional sound design and the strong and immersive soundtrack made you feel as a part of a whole and the film never felt boring or cliche. It is masterfully crafted and really well-paced. Every conversation and direction that the film takes feels logical and you can feel the chaos slowly coming to the surface and destroying this tribe's life. Also, whenever a certain ritual was taking place, like the bird-like dance or the spitting by the old lady that is the matriarch o the tribe, I was instantly hooked by it. Its a movie about life and death and how a small change could lead to a larger one and to a larger one and in the end to death and chaos. Its a story about people which are trapped in their own deadly webs and are unable to escape. Everything that was young and beautiful,the red dress of the young actress, the insects and the kids, the dances and that feel of family, togetherness and spirituality is lost and overshadowed by dullness and corrupted and greedy people, who seek power but in the end find death. Tragic indeed 8/10 and who knows? maybe a 9 on a second watch

Birds of Passage (Pájaros de verano in Spanish) is a striking and fascinating look into an 'alien' world, a term I use here because this film is a deep dive into another time and far different culture. It could be another planet almost. The film is about events in the 60's and 70's especially regarding the Wayuu of northern Colombia, an Indigenous culture quite divorced from Columbia proper with a distinct language and customs quite different from the rest of Columbia. The English translation presented is always that they are 'Indians' but quite unique if you compare only to the Indians of America. If you look at a map of Columbia, the colorful Wayuu inhabit the peninsula that juts out into the Atlantic in the far north. It's a desert area in part but has green agricultural area in the hills, where marijuana was cultivated very successfully. This film is brilliant and riveting but has the drawback in our own culture of having subtitles, but deserves an audience beyond the multiplex. This great work of movie art retells the story of the Wayuu during the late 60's, early-70's, when Peace Corps volunteers were in the area and the gringos were looking for pot. I understand the fascination of tribal cultures from my own Peace Corps service in Iran, also in the late-60's, and the attraction to cannabis from nearby Afghanistan. As is striking in indigenous cultures, the family is everything to the protagonists of the film with trust in the dream world (literally), family tribal elders and the ways of their ancestors. This area had deep poverty before the exporting of the region's very potent marijuana to the states was embraced. The demand was fed by young Americans willing to pay top dollar for it. I can speak to this also as in 1971 Colombian pot was around in New York City that we called the "two puff stuff". I didn't know anything about origins of this marijuana. I did know a pilot, who had served in the Vietnam and flew planeloads of pot out of Columbia into the States so I had some awareness of the demand. There are better descriptions than I will make of plot details of this film here on IMDB. Not noted directly in the film: by the mid-1980's the violent Medellin cartel took over the Marijuana business from the Wayuu and their region descended again into poverty. The Wayuu people stepped away from further drug-related violence, as had been unleased previously within their clan groups who had run their region's elicit trade. I emphasize in my review the universal theme presented in the film of the undoing of greed and betrayal on traditional and humane values. This epic film ends with a 'war' between warring families or clans. This film is from Cristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra, who made the unusual "Embrace of the Serpents", a striking and hallucinatory Oscar nominated film, very highly rated on IMDB, but not by me. I didn't appreciate that film as much Birds of Passage. However, having seen this later film from this incredible team, I'll go back and see 'Serpents' again to give it another view.

Birds of Paradise takes a familiar subject, the Colombian drug scene in the '60's and '70's, and makes it into a watchable Godfather saga. Family is the center of the action leading to, you guessed it, warring drug kingdoms. The cinematography is lush, the actors authentic, and the themes eternal.

The stuff that makes the world happy, weed, comes down from the mountains to the small airplanes, which fly north to the US, a pleased customer bringing prosperity to otherwise impoverished Colombians. Marriage promises families forever linked until capitalism, not communism, rends even the strongest familial ties.

The five "cantos" embrace happiness and misery in equal measure: wild grass, the graves, prosperity, the war, and limbo. The coming out party of gorgeous Zaida (Natalia Reyes) presages a bright future for her Wayuu tribe with a blazing-red silk dress and stunning face paint. However, the imposing mother Ursula (Carmina Martinez) demands an expensive dowry that suitor Rapayet (Jose Acosta) might have difficulty offering. This matriarch gives the lie to any theory that Latino culture is purely patriarchal.

Ambition leads to drug running, family feuding, and temporary wealth. The riches are embodied in the colorful fabrics that are flamboyant and garish at the same time. The dark downfalls could be written about anywhere.

Birds of Passage is an engaging and beautiful gloss on the effects of tribalism and the corruptions of wealth and power, exacerbated by the obsession with the belief in family to die for at all costs. It is a glowing and menacing reprise of the Colombian Corleone days set amongst the indigenous Wayuu, for whom only a few moments are in paradise.