Birds of Passage

There's been a reasonable number of films about the drug trade in Columbia. But a lot of these tend to be city-based, and often playing with Americans falling afoul of the cartels or else caught up in their activities. "Birds of Passage" is different - it takes place entirely within the Native American Wayuu people, with outsiders barely involved, as an increased involvement in the drug trade sees traditions challenged or ripped apart as the individuals find that their children lose respect for tribal traditions, and the spiritual practices that have sustained their people fall apart.

IN some ways, the details of this are somewhat familiar - people enter into the trade thinking it is going to be an easy path to fortune, only to find greed and individual betrayal creates cycles of violence that destroy them. But playing this against a wildly different culture gives this both a radically different set of visuals and a different energy - and it's something that emerges as a strength of the piece that it's never just about these characters, but also about their connection to the culture around them. There's a little bit of a gradual start here as this isn't entirely concerned with holding a western audience's hand while we walk through the culture - beliefs and concepts are discussed as they are practiced, with us left to understand that these are important to the characters even if we haven't been filled in on the details of how they work or what they mean. It's a fascinating film that is well worth catching, both as a very different take on the drug crime film, and as an exploration of a community that we don't get to see much of.