Pájaros de verano (2018) Reviews

• A stylish and memorable film

  soundoflight2018-10-13

  This film was not what I expected. And I mean that in the most positive way possible. What I expected was another rehashing of the Colombian drug cartel wars / gun fights / Pablo Escobar type stuff, and while there is certainly some of that here, the film is so much more than that. This film takes you to a remote and little known corner of northern Colombia and immediately immerses you in the local culture. I hope this is not a spoiler but I was left speechless by the simple fact that Spanish is not actually the language being spoken in most of the film - instead it's the regional native dialect of the tribes-people that the film follows. Being completely foreign to Colombia, this was all new and fascinating to me. The film does a wonderful job portraying these proud people and their culture, and how the larger Colombian "drug" culture seeps in with its temptations of money and power. The lesson of what happens when those two mix is a timeless one. The landscapes of the film are stunning, and I particularly appreciated the cinematography. But perhaps my favourite thing about the film was it's heavy use of spirituality and what I can only describe as "magical realism" transposed into film. I thought it was brilliantly done. This is one of my favourite films I've seen this year, hands down.

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• Honor, tradition, family and ... marijuana

  FrenchEddieFelson2019-04-15

  This marvelous movie takes place in Colombia, within the Peninsula of the Guajirain, a sparsely populated and arid area, and mostly played with Wayuu autochthons. This timeless univers is characterized by a rather pronounced communitarianism, each village highlighting its differences with the surrounding ones, while the origin of these differences remains, as often, unexplained and obscure. Nevertheless, they share ancestral traditions, folklore and values such as honor and family bonds. Thus, during the first 30 minutes, we do not really know when the film takes place, until the informative and surprising appearance of cars. Thus, we may guess that we are in the 60s / 70s. A marriage proposal between a man and a woman from two neighboring tribes will be, by a strange combination of circumstances related to an exorbitant dowry, the opportunity to integrate the marijuana trafficking, which is a very lucrative universe while slowly distorting personalities. Like in a Greek tragedy, these families will ineluctably suffer a descent into hell, via the classical 'eye for eye, tooth for tooth' philosophy. The film is visually sober and simple, but of an exacerbated aestheticism, with an unusual care about details, including birds. Moreover, the actors are excellent, especially the two main ones: José Acosta (Rapayet) and Carmiña Martínez (Úrsula).

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• You no longer live as Wayuu

  linkogecko2019-01-28

  Gangster films are one of the most clearly-blueprinted genres of fiction. From "Scarface" to "The Godfather" saga to Netflix's "Narcos" series, we usually start with a protagonist outside the criminal life though very aware of or close to it, suddenly tempted by something beyond their means to enter that world. Economic and professional growth follows; loss, revenge and grudges do too. A moment of reckoning usually comes near the end, with the protagonist dying or being caught at a personal low. We can commonly include other stock characters: the wild one that is close to the protagonist but dangerous to all due to their explosive nature, a consigliere father figure for guidance, the betrayer. The uniqueness of "Birds of Passage" is not in doing anything meta or original with this blueprint, but rather in following it in its own terms, bringing a lot of heavy themes along for the ride. The movie, set between 1965 and 1980, is mostly spoken in the Wayuu language of the indigenous people of the same name of northern Colombia's La Guajira region and features several actors of that ethnic group, with the characters' decisions never being free from their culture and norms. This is clear from the start, where we are introduced to Zaida, a young woman of a high-standing Wayuu clan. When Zaida is allowed to leave her traditional one-year seclusion as she's now considered fit for marriage, she catches the eye of Rapayet. A Wayuu man of a lower family standing, Rapayet decides that Zaida is to be his wife, either because of the possibilites offered by her family prestige or out of genuine attraction (most likely a mixture of both). Zaida's hand will only be available with a large dowry of tens of heads of cattle. Rapayet sees the opportunity to obtain the dowry by buying marihuana from his cousin and selling it to a drug-dealing U.S. hippie. These familiar relations (mostly built out of distrust to non-Wayuu) and traditional norms are what set this story apart. As business deals go wrong and Rapayet finds himself forced to kill his best friend and original business partner, things rapidly escalate in the traditional gangster movie narrative (with some elements of films like "Blue Ruin", with the stubborness and sheer willpower that goes into eye-for-an-eye family grudges) and the protagonists' completely human greed leads to major change. Designer watches become more fashionable than loincloths. Hammocks give way to beds. Huts give way to mansions. Wayuunaiki gives way to Spanish. The commentary is strong in this movie; we have the obvious context of Indigenous peoples abandoning their ways of life in favor of the mainstream, Colombia's foreign and self-image being so influenced by drug traffic, the little-seen developed-world consumers of these drugs. My favorite however, is the simple flawed humanity in the characters. It is very easy to look at cultures in real danger of extinction and place them in a pedestal, but "Birds of Passage" intelligently avoids this by portraying these Wayuu people to be as greedy, ambitious, lustful and definitely not above using their cultural norms to get their own self-interested way, as any other group. In the "moment of reckoning", a group of Wayuu elders declares to Rapayet's family matriarch: "you no longer live like Wayuu". It is true... but they DID LIVE that way. They lived the Wayuu life and CHOSE the alternative, clearly showing the process by which not only Indigenous peoples, but most people are CHOOSING a more globalized, standarized way of life, for better and worse. "Birds of Passage" is the perfect example of this, it chooses a well-known Western narrative path and follows it down to a t. Along the way, we get just enough "flavor" for it to feel unique. The Wayuu customs, including songs, are not the only element used here, as some magical realism imagery that seems pulled right out of "One Hundred Years of Solitude" makes an appearance, usually in the context of Wayuu supernatural beliefs, to remind us of one of Colombia's most important cultural contributions to humanity. Mentioning this "flavor" is in no way meant to be disparaging, since it is the single best and most important element of the movie. This is not an artificial flavoring agent, but rather a slow-cooked, organically-sourced, complex, balanced and deep flavor, the kind that will linger on for a while.

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• Cultural Patrimony of Humanity

  rooneyaz2018-10-13

  Exciting, symbolic, cultural, philosophical and dramatic. These are the words that can best describe this Colombian cultural work by Cristina Gallego & Ciro Guerra. From the first 10 minutes he puts in focus cultures and linguistic samples -First movie spoken in Wuayú- typical of an aboriginal society of South America that had never been explored in the seventh art. There lies the beauty of the film, because it takes the time to show and exhibit an ancestral indigenous culture with the help of impeccable photography, unforgettable landscapes, masterful actors direction and a narrative style in the best style of La Iliada. The public will encounter a family drama with shades of narco novel. However, the latter should not disappoint the public, since the whole issue related to marijuana is just a thread that allows us to unite the center of the film, a story about the decadence of the ancient values and traditions of an aboriginal people of the Peninsula of the Guajira. Possible Spoiler, To enjoy the film better, it is advisable to pay special attention to the use of songs and animals as a connection between the spiritual world and the material world. We are facing one of the best films that Colombian cinema has given birth to. It will surely be nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars 2019, and who knows, maybe it'll keep the prize. Cultural Patrimony of Humanity

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• If there's family, there's honour

  nikxatz2019-02-03

  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

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