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Pepe film image; hippo stands behind grass

Pepe

Spectrum

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“I have a name, but I still can’t explain it. Actually, I’ll be able to explain very few things.” Thus narrates Pepe, the first and only hippopotamus to be killed in the Americas, his name given to him by the Colombian press. One of four hippos kept by notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar in his private zoo, Pepe and his companions took to wandering the Magdalena River, eventually becoming a dangerous nuisance to the locals. In this unclassifiable feature, Pepe tells us his side of the story.

Directed by Dominican director Nelson Carlos de Los Santos Arias, winner of this year’s Silver Bear for Best Director at the Berlin Film Festival, Pepe is a wild, unpredictable foray into this unlikely history. Formally audacious, it mixes multiple formats and celluloid stocks, archival audio, and news footage, as well as an extended, almost Jaws-like drama of a small village gearing up to face the threat of the hippos. It’s a wry, humorous look at what history would be like if everyone were given a voice.

 

Silver Bear for Best Director, Berlin 2024

 

Community Partner

Director
Cast

Jhon Narváez, Sor María Ríos, Fareed Matjila, Harmony Ahalwa, Jorge Puntillón García, Shifafure Faustinus

Credits
Country of Origin

Dominican Republic/Namibia/
Germany/France

Year

2024

Language

In Spanish, Mbukushu, Afrikaans and German with English subtitles

18+
122 min
Award Winners Documentary Experimental & Avant Garde Human Rights & Social Justice
4a4 Productions, Pandora Films, Joe's Vision

Book Tickets

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Credits & Director

Producer

Pablo Lozano, Tanya Valette, Nelson Carlo de los Santos Arias

Screenwriter

Nelson Carlo de los Santos Arias

Cinematography

Camilo Soratti, Roman Lechapelier, Nelson Carlo de los Santos Arias

ANIM

Manuel Barenboim

Editor

Nelson Carlo de los Santos Arias

Original Music

Nelson Carlo de los Santos Arias

Nelson Carlo de los Santos Arias headshot; Pepe director

Nelson Carlo de los Santos Arias

Nelson Carlo de los Santos Arias is a Dominican director who studied film in Buenos Aires and Edinburgh and has an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts. His first short film SheSaid HeWalks HeSaid SheWalks (2009) won a BAFTA Scotland while his documentary Pareces una carreta… (2013) was part of the major Latin America art exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. His graduation film Santa Teresa & Otras Historias (2015) won the Prix Georges De Beauregard at FidMarseille and Cocote (2017) won the Signs of Life Award at Locarno. He developed Pepe (2024) while participating in the DAAD artists-in-Berlin program.

Filmography: You Look Like a Carriage That Not Even the Oxen Can Stop (2013); Santa Teresa & Other Stories (2015); Cocote (2017)

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