Karamakate says, "to become a warrior, every Cohiuano man must leave everything behind and go into the jungle, guided only by his dreams. In that journey, he has to discover, in solitude and silence, who he really is."

I admire Grover Norquist. I think hes done a lot of good.

Both the old and young Karamakates are portrayed by indigenous men, neither of them professional actors. The old shaman is played by Antonio Bolivar Salvador.

I would like to say that what Mel Phillips was doing was not sexual harassment but more sexual abuse of children, because he was doing it in a sexual manner now that I look back on it.

Well, I guess the sexual abuse by Mel Phillips in a sense, he had a fetish for feet. He used to play with my feet and other kids' feet, and that was his thing.

And what they believe in real life is complicated. Theodor Koch-Grunberg wrote in his diary that indigenous peoples in the Amazon see these outsiders following in each other's footsteps as the same person, a single soul traversing across several lives. They also see time as something that doesn't proceed inexorably into the future.

"Embrace Of The Serpent" has been a big deal for Colombians outside the Amazon. It's been showing continuously there for more than three months. And the Oscar nomination, the film's producer says Colombians are comparing it to having the national team in the World Cup.