Cineplex Acquires “The Cry of Serankwa” for Latin America

By Grace Kim

Variety reports that Latin American distributor Cineplex has acquired the Colombian and Latin American rights to Yull Núñez’s Indigenous eco-thriller “The Cry of Serankwa” (“El grito de Serankwa”). The film competed in the WIP Iberoamericana section for work-in-progress films at the Santiago Film Festival (Sanfic), where it won three industry prizes at Sanfic Industria; the festival ran Nov. 2-8.

Variety calls the project Núñez’s sophomore feature and places it among the relatively few large-scale films about Colombian Indigenous communities, citing Cristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra’s 2018 “Birds of Passage” as one of the last such releases. Núñez’s credits include that film and the lead role in Guerra’s 2009 “The Wind Journeys”; his second feature aims for comparable scale and ambition.

“From the moment we read the script for ‘The Cry of Serankwa,’ we felt a strong connection to its story and its portrayal of the sacred territories of Colombia’s Iku, Wiwa, Kogui and Kankwamo communities in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta,” said Cineplex’s Elba McAllister.

“The film explores our relationship with nature, the preservation of ancestral traditions and the challenges these communities face in the modern world.”

“Much of it is spoken in the Iku language, offering a remarkable immersion into the community’s ancestral worldview. We’re delighted to support its distribution across Colombia and Latin America and believe it will resonate with audiences both within and beyond the region. It’s sure to generate plenty of conversation in 2027.”

The conflict inside the story

Variety’s synopsis follows Marcelo and Aníbal, friends from the Indigenous Iku tribe, as they prepare to become Mamus, or spiritual leaders. Aníbal fails to become a Mamu and leaves for the city. Years later, he returns as an engineer for a mining firm, threatening the village and his friendship with Marcelo, the Sierra’s new guardian.

According to Núñez, their mission is to save Mother Earth from human destruction, especially mining companies’ devastation of sacred lands. He identifies Serankwa as the god of these Indigenous communities and says he began writing the story in 2017.

Production rooted in Nabuzimake

Núñez comes from Colombia’s Caribbean coast and is of Afro-Colombian descent