Birds of Passage + Extended Intro 15

Our next collaboration with Birds Eye View's Reclaim the Frame campaign, focuses on this breath-taking epic and will include an extended introduction from Dr. Peter Watt and an open discussion in the café after the film.

Centring the Wayúu indigenous people during the violent origins of drug trafficking in Columbia, Birds of Passage is a fiery exploration of the erosion of tradition in pursuit of power and wealth.

Torn between his desire to become a powerful man and his duty to uphold his culture’s values, Rapayet enters the drug trafficking business and finds quick success, despite his tribe’s matriarch’s disapproval. Ignoring ancient omens, Rapayet and his family get caught up in a conflict where honour is the highest currency and debts are paid with blood. Visually breath-taking, this exploration of loyalty, greed, and untameable change is a must-see.

Dr Peter Watt is Lecturer in Hispanic Studies at the University of Sheffield. He teaches and researches Latin American politics and history and has published on issues relating to narcotrafficking, neoliberalism, human rights, social movements and neoliberalism in the region.