This article is part of our Milwaukee Film Festival daily preview series. The series is brought to you by Associated Bank. Pájaros de Verano (Birds of Passage) Friday, Oct. 19 @ 3:30 p.m. Avalon Theater
In the 1960s, drug trafficking still had a romantic outlaw aura, but by the ’70s, the trade was already turning into a big business run by cartels and enforced by men for whom brutality was as easy as breathing. With Birds of Passage, Colombian directors Ciro Guerra and Cristina Gallego (Oscar-nominated for Embrace of the Serpent) dramatize the destructive impact of international drug trafficking on an indigenous culture in Colombia’s backcountry. The “Birds” are the aircraft flying the marijuana crop to the teeming marketplace of America as traditional bonds of respect and authority are crushed by greed. “I’m in business with the gringos now,” as one character puts it. The cinematography and composition of Birds of Passage reaches an unusually high level in today’s often slipshod digital environment.
Additional screenings: Monday, Oct. 22 Times Cinema 8:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 26 Fox-Bay Cinema Grill 1 p.m.
See all of our daily previews of what's ahead at the 2018 Milwaukee Film Festival here.
Since 2015, Associated Bank has partnered with Milwaukee Film to help bring cinematic entertainment and education to the greater Milwaukee area. To learn more about how you can give back to the nonprofit Milwaukee Film every time you make a purchase, visit associatedbank.com/mkefilm.
