FROM THE BIBLE of cinema, Godfather, to the highly revered Infernal Affairs trilogy, gangster films have been a staple of cinema. Birds of Passage is a welcome addition to the genre. It chronicles the lesser known customs and traditions of a tribe along with the power struggle and one-upmanship central to gangster movies.
Divided into five chapters, Birds of Passage narrates the story of the Colombian marijuana trade from the 1960s to early 1980s, dominated by the indigenous Wayuu tribe of north-eastern Colombia. The movie begins with the colourful coming-of-age ceremony of Zaida, daughter of the formidable matriarch, Ursula. At the ceremony, a young man, Rapayet, requests her hand in marriage.
Using his connections, Rapayet scores a large amount of weed with which he pays the dowry. His fortunes increase as he becomes the middleman in the flourishing marijuana trade. However, money, power and guns come at a cost, and soon, things that the tribe holds dear are lost to glamour and glory.
The movie, which was the Colombian entry to the 2018 Oscars in the best foreign language film category, is a gangster saga with its share of blood, power and intrigue. But also one that traces the disintegration of traditions and customs due to greed.