“Do you know why I’m respected? Because I’m capable of anything for my family and my clan,” a matriarch (Carmiña Martínez) explains in a new trailer for “Birds of Passage.” Ursula is sending a warning — cross her family or clan, and you will suffer the consequences. Colombia’s foreign language Oscar pick traces the origins of the Colombian drug trade as it corrupts Ursula’s native Wayúu family.
The spot kicks off with a voiceover: “If there’s family, there’s honor. If there’s honor, there’s peace.” But money complicates things. The action-packed, violent footage suggests that the the family loses its sense of honor — and there are indeed consequences. War ensues, and with it comes many, many corpses.
Directed by Cristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra and written by Maria Camila Arias and Jacques Toulemonde Vidal, “Birds of Passage” opens February 13 in New York and Los Angeles, with a national rollout to follow. The drama opened the Directors’ Fortnight section at Cannes earlier this year.