On Friday, feel the “Embrace of the Serpent’

Vancouver, the British Columbia city that sits north of Seattle, offers many treats to the visitor. Not the least of those is a user-friendly film festival that comes in the fall (usually bridging the last week or so of September and on into October).

It was at that festival last year that my wife and I saw the Oscar-nominated film from Colombia "Embrace of the Serpent" ("El abrazo de la serpiente"), which opens Friday at the Magic Lantern. We were two of the film's most ardent supporters when the question came up as to whether the film should be shown as part of the 2016 Spokane International Film Festival.

But, really, don't just take our word that the film is worth seeing. It earned a 99 percent Tomatometer reading. Here are some other critical voices:

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: "Wholly original and brand new, director Ciro Guerra's 'Embrace of the Serpent' immediately feels like some kind of lost classic, a movie that has been around for a long time but only talked about in film circles, finally unearthed."

David Edelstein, New York Magazine: "It's another in a long, honorable line of films that chart the poisonous effects of colonialism on indigenous populations and their ecosystems, but with an unusually invigorating perspective, like a reverse-angle 'Heart of Darkness.' "

Stephanie Zacharek, Time Magazine: "The majesty of nature is 'Embrace of the Serpent''s true star, and Guerra captures the glory of every leaf, every inch of sky, in pearlescent black-and-white as luminous as the lining of a clamshell."

Guerra's film didn't win the Oscar (which went to the Hungarian soul-crusher "Son of Saul"), but it — as you can see — is well worth a view.