Pepe
Additional screening added on Sunday, October 20 at 5:30pm!
In the 1980s, Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar imported four hippopotamuses for a personal menagerie to entertain and impress guests at his lavish estate, Hacienda Nápoles. While many of the animals either perished or were transferred to zoos after his death in 1993, the hippopotamuses survived and reproduced in the surrounding rivers, becoming an invasive species that threatened ecosystems and local fishing villages.
Based on real events, this enigmatic, feature film from Dominican filmmaker Nelson Carlo de los Santos Arias centers on Pepe, a sentient hippopotamus reflecting upon his life’s journey from Namibia to Colombia in a raspy, unconventional, meditative voiceover. "Pepe" was the name given by the Colombian press to an actual hippopotamus killed in 2009 by a hunting party aiming to stop Escobar’s hippos from infiltrating the nearby rivers.
As it shifts between Pepe’s existential reflections and the perspectives of local villagers, the film also playfully alternates between realism and fantasy — posing provocative questions about displacement, trauma, and the nature of being.
Filmmaker Nelson Carlo de los Santos Arias will join in-person for a conversation after the screening. Cosponsored by the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program (LACS).
Pepe won the Silver Bear for Best Director at the 2024 Berlinale International Film Festival and will have its U.S. Premiere at the New York Film Festival on Saturday, October 5.
In Afrikaans, German, Spanish, and Mbukushu with English subtitles
The film screens as part of "Cine Con Cultura." Courtesy of the filmmaker and producers Monte y Culebra, Santo Domingo; 4a4 Productions, France; Pandora Films, Germany; and Joe’s Vision, Namibia.
About the filmmaker
Dominican filmmaker Nelson de los Santos Arias was born in Santo Domingo, where he also studied creative writing and media art at the Universidad Iberoamericana (UNIBE). He then studied cinema at Universidad del cine in Buenos Aires, Edinburgh College of Art, and received his MFA Film & Video at CalArts in 2014. His first short film SheSaid HeWalks was awarded a 2009 Scottish BAFTA. His first documentary, The Carriage, was included in the major Latin America art exhibition in the US at the Guggenheim Museum. His thesis from Calarts, Santa Teresa y Otras Historias, premiered at FidMarseille winning the Prix Georges De Beauregard. His film Cocote was released at Locarno winning the Golden Leopard in the Signs of Life category. He was a beneficiary of the DAAD where he started to develop his new film Pepe. It premiered in the 74th Edition of the Berlin International Festival, winning the Silver Bear for Best Director.