Embrace of the Serpent (2015) – Filming Locations
Drama / Adventure · Directed by Ciro Guerra · Starring Antonio Bolívar
The epic story of the first contact, encounter, approach, betrayal and, eventually, life-transcending friendship, between Karamakate, an Amazonian shaman, last survivor of his people, and two scientists that, over the course of 40 years, travel through the Amazon in search of a sacred plant that can heal them. Inspired by the journals of the first explorers of the Colombian Amazon, Theodor Koch-Grunberg and Richard Evans Schultes.
Where was Embrace of the Serpent filmed?
- Leticia, Colombia, Leticia – Opening sequences along the Amazon River where the shaman Karamakate is introduced. The remote Amazonian border town served as the primary base for filming deep in the Colombian rainforest, providing authentic river and jungle landscapes
- Putumayo River region, Colombia, Putumayo – The extended river journey and expedition sequences through the Amazon interior. The actual Putumayo River waterways were used for the canoe journey that forms the narrative spine of the film, requiring extended location filming in remote jungle territories
- Colombian Amazon rainforest, Amazon region – Multiple sequences of the shamans' spiritual rituals, plant gathering, and encounters with indigenous communities. Deep jungle locations were filmed to capture the indigenous peoples, shamanic practices, and the pristine Amazonian environment that is central to the film's ethnographic authenticity