In the Guajira desert in the 1970s, a Wayuu family takes a leading role in the burgeoning Colombian drug trade. Headed by feared matriarch Úrsula, the family discovers the perks of wealth and power. When Rapayet falls in love with Úrsula’s daughter, he must carve a role in the family business.

Doubling down on the national mythmaking of his mesmerizing previous film Embrace of the Serpent, Ciro Guerra expands the parameters of genre filmmaking with this chimerical follow-up. A poetic examination of Colombia’s narcotics trade, Birds of Passage is an oneiric, unclassifiable triumph.