‘Birds of Passage’: An Epic Colombian Crime Saga About Ambition, Tradition and the Birth of a Narco-Empire

Birds of Passage (Pájaros de Verano) (2018) is a sweeping Colombian crime saga that unfolds within Colombia's indigenous Wayuu community from the late 1960s through the 1980s. The story follows Rapayet (José Acosta), a young man who turns to drug trafficking in order to amass the wealth needed to marry Zaida (Natalia Reyes) whose family demands a large dowry for her hand.

The film's narrative unfolds during the "bonanza marimbera" marijuana boom when Colombia became a major exporter of marijuana to the United States. What begins as a modest trade with American Peace Corps volunteers soon expands into a powerful enterprise that brings prosperity alongside tension and bloodshed. As Rapayet and his clan build their wealth, their success collides with Wayuu traditions of honor and spiritual balance, particularly in the eyes of Zaida’s mother Úrsula (Carmiña Martínez). Over time rivalries and betrayals corrode the family bonds that held the clan together, leading to a violent unraveling foretold by ancestral omens.

Directed by Cristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra (Waiting for the Barbarians, Embrace of the Serpent), Birds of Passage deftly blends myth and reality, framing its story in chapters that resemble folk tales while echoing the tragic arc of classic gangster epics. Visually arresting and thematically rich, it's an eye-opening depiction of the corrosive power of greed as well as a searing portrait of a community caught between tradition and modernity.

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