Birds of Passage (film)


Birds of Passage is a 2018 epic crime film directed by Ciro Guerra and Cristina Gallego.
The film explores the rise of a Wayuu man and his family as they enter the drug trade, prosper, and slowly lose their traditions and former way of life.
It was selected to open the 50th edition of the Directors' Fortnight section at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival. It was selected as the Colombian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 91st Academy Awards, making the December shortlist.

Plot

In the 1960s Zaida, a young Wayuu woman comes of age. She meets Rapayet who tells her he wants to marry her. Zaida comes from the influential Pushaina family and when Rapayet proposes to her her mother, Ursula, sets her dowry high.
Rapayet comes across white Americans working for the Peace Corps. He is informed by his friend, Moisés, that they are desperate to find weed. Rapayet goes to a cousin of his, Gabriel, who grows marijuana and sells it to the Peace Corps. One of them, impressed, offers Rapayet a business deal exporting the drugs. With the money from the trade Rapayet is able to pay Zaida's dowry in full.
A few years later Rapayet is happily married to Zaida. The export business has now grown from Rapayet and Moisés on donkeys to a large scale operation. Moisés urges Rapayet to expand the business and work with other growers but Rapayet stays loyal to Gabriel. During a handoff Rapayet realizes the Americans he is working with are getting their supply from another middleman. Moisés kills two of the men and is only stopped from killing a third when Rapayet threatens him. The Pushaina family urge Rapayet to kill Moisés in retribution for the blood he has spilled. However in deference to their friendship Rapayet refuses and instead tells Moisés he is no longer welcome in his business though he will still get a cut out of every drop off. In retaliation Moisés and his men kill Gabriel and his family. Rapayet is forced to kill Moisés. With his wife's family backing him he strikes a new deal with Gabriel's brother, Anibal, who agrees to provide marijuana for a higher fee.
By the end of the '70s Rapayet and his family are enjoying a prosperous life. They are invited to attend Gabriel's second burial. Despite Ursula's reluctance the entire family attends. While there Leonidas, Ursula's youngest son who has grown up knowing only extravagant wealth, clumsily tries to seduce Anibal's daughter and later has one of her bodyguards eat dog feces in exchange for money. As retribution Anibal demands that Leonidas work in his fields. Though Ursula urges Rapayet not to comply he does so at Zaida's request hoping to evade a war between the families. While staying in Anibal's compound Leonidas rapes his daughter, triggering a feud between the clans.
Once again trying to avoid war Rapayet sends a word messenger offering Anibal his entire business, an offer Anibal rejects before killing the word messenger signifying a total break with Wayuu tradition. In fear Rapayet, Zaida and their children flee. The murder causes other Wayuu clans to send their word messengers however Ursula is surprised that most of the other Wayuu are willing to turn their backs on her family, believing they have lost their traditions and are no longer Wayuu. Ursula is offered a deal where the other clans will offer their help if she gives them sacred objects belonging to her family. She accepts and using the strength of the other families kidnaps her daughter and grandchildren, warning Rapayet not to come back.
Meanwhile Anibal's compound is destroyed along with his men. He uses the last of his money to hire mercenaries who attack Rapayet's compound leaving only Ursula and her granddaughter Indira alive. Ursula urges Indira to run away with Leonidas, who is still alive, but she is forced to forge her way alone. Ursula is forced to sell what remains of her business to Anibal's mercenaries in exchange for her grandson's body. She also gives up Rapayet's location to Anibal who tracks him down and murders him while vowing never to stop until he can kill Leonidas.

Cast

Production for the film took ten years with writer-directors Cristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra becoming interested in the Wayuu people while filming The Wind Journeys which Guerra wrote and directed and Gallego produced. The filmmakers based the film on real stories they heard during this research phase and incorporated members of the community into their production. According to the directors about 30% of the cast and crew was made up of local Wayuu people.
The film marks the directorial debut of Gallego who had previously worked as a producer and decided to co-direct the film in order to add a female perspective as women were valued in Wayuu culture and were also a part of the drug trade in the 1970s.
In addition to their longtime producing and direction partnership Gallego and Guerra were also married. They divorced amicably during the production of the film.

Reception

Critical response

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 95% based on 128 reviews with an average rating of 7.84/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Birds of Passage traces the familiar arc of the drug crime thriller from a different direction that's as visually absorbing as it is hard-hitting." Metacritic gives the film a weighted average score of 86 out of 100, based on 24 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".
Some critics have compared it favourably to other crime saga films like The Godfather, Scarface and the television series The Sopranos. Indiewire's Eric Kohn awarded the film a B+ rating, calling it "another fascinating tone poem about Colombia’s fractured identity". Jordan Hoffman of The Guardian gave a positive review of the film, writing "in the most reductive way, it is another mafia story. But as with their previous film, it is the specificity that counts, and while certain genre tendencies prevent the narrative from truly unmooring, hardly a scene goes by without something fundamentally familiar being rendered in a unique fashion".
Varietys Peter Debruge wrote that "few films have captured quite so powerfully the tension between the old and new worlds — a feat “Birds of Passage” accomplishes while simultaneously allowing audiences to channel the Wayuu’s surrealistic view of their surroundings, where spirits walk the earth, and wise women interpret their dreams". Jessica Kiang of The Playlist stated the film was "wildly alive, yet it reminds us that no matter how modern we are, there are ancient songs our forebears knew whose melodies still rush in our blood". About the Wayuu people depicted here she wrote: "the Wayuu here are neither exploited innocents nor backward savages, but flawed humans indulging recognisable human instincts of greed and rapaciousness... You do not have to have Wayuu ancestry, or any connection to the region to understand the broader implications of this epic story of haunted druglords and ruthless power grabs that are partly predicated on traditional beliefs and shibboleths".
Former United States President Barack Obama named Birds of Passage among his favorite films and television series of 2019. In his annual list of favorite films, which he released on Twitter on December 29, 2019.

Box office

The movie generated US $507,259 at the North American box office and $901,929 elsewhere for a worldwide total of $1,409,188, making it the most successful Spanish language Colombian film since the international festival sensation Embrace of the Serpent in 2016 by the same director.