French director Kounen tackles a subject which should interest most everyone to some degree - be it shamanism or hallucinogens. Kounen's travels along the Amazon lead him to a tribe with century-long experiences of sacred plants and a "parallel universe" reached through the use of said herbs. Documenting the rituals of the tribe, his own encounters with the plants and the opinions of various experts from around the globe, the director seems to aim to unravel some of the myths of shamanism and everything related to it. He succeeds, but not completely. A part of the problem is that one cannot (at least Kounen isn't able to) begin to describe an alternate universe by producing surreal images on the silver screen or claiming things such as Kounen hadn't understood that he never left childhood prior to participating in the shaman's sessions. Perhaps the only way to truly learn about shamanism would be to have a shaman among movie audiences and instead of serving pop-corn, you could get yourself a nice big glass of Amazon's finest elixir. Nice effort though.
Review of D'autres mondes
