Birds of Passage

Cristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra, who gave us the magnificent Embrace of the Serpent three years ago, present the story of an indigenous Wayu family who become tangled up in the pre-Escobar birth of Colombia’s booming drug trade in the 1970’s. This lushly shot film focuses on the impact of the drug culture on the Wayu, and pulls off an unusual marriage of ethnography and thriller unlike anything we’ve ever seen. Imagine the best of National Geographic wedded to Narcos or Sicario and you’ll get some idea of just how unusual this film is.