BOGOTA: Nilbio Torres had never been to the cinema before and had never heard of the Oscars, until he acted in a film that got nominated for one.

The 30-year-old father of four from the Amazon jungle is one of the indigenous Colombian stars of “Embrace of the Serpent,” up for the Best Foreign Language Film award at the Oscars on Feb. 28.

The third film by Colombian director Ciro Guerra, it is based on the true story of an expedition into the Amazon in the early 20th century by a German ethnologist and a US biologist.

But unlike previous tales about European adventures in the South American jungle, this one is told from the viewpoint of the indigenous peoples, who speak in their native languages.

“It was hard to get into character,” Torres told AFP, struggling to express himself in Spanish.

“I had to show it like it was real.”

Torres, of the Cubeo ethnic group, plays the part of the shaman Karamakate, last survivor of his village, as a young man.

Antonio Bolivar, himself one of the last surviving members of the Uitoto ethnic group, plays the character when he is older. The locals call him Grandpa Antonio.

Nilbio works in the jungle growing yucca and bananas at a plantation he gets to each day by canoe. The hard physical work has given him the kind of body Hollywood actors work on in the gym.

When the film crew came to his part of the jungle, he thought of trying to get a job as an assistant on the shoot to earn some extra cash.

Instead, the filmmakers offered him a role. They sent him to acting classes in the capital Bogota — the first time he had ever traveled by plane.