Pepe (HKIFF48)
Genre
SPECIAL PROGRAMME
Release Date
8 Apr 2024 (Mon)
Category
--- (HK), ---(Macau)
Running Time
123 Minutes
Language
Spanish, Afrikaans, Mbukushu, German
Subtitle
English
Director
Nelson Carlos de los Santos Arias
Cast
Jhon Narváez, Sor María Ríos, Fareed Matjila, Harmony Ahalwa
Synopsis
Beginning with the traffic of four hippopotamuses to Columbia by drug lord Pablo Escobar (which introduced the animal to the local ecosystem following his death), Dominican director Nelson Carlos de los Santos Arias, winner of the Best Director award at this year’s Berlinale, spins a remarkable postcolonial fable. From the rivers of West Africa to Columbia’s Rio Magdalena, Pepe is a triumph of the imagination, part magical realist reverie, narrated by the ghost of Pepe, the last hippo killed in the Americas, part experimental tour de force, subverting all formal expectations.
Beginning with the traffic of four hippopotamuses to Columbia by drug lord Pablo Escobar (which introduced the animal to the local ecosystem following his death), Dominican director Nelson Carlos de los Santos Arias, winner of the Best Director award at this year’s Berlinale, spins a remarkable postcolonial fable. From the rivers of West Africa to Columbia’s Rio Magdalena, Pepe is a triumph of the imagination, part magical realist reverie, narrated by the ghost of Pepe, the last hippo killed in the Americas, part experimental tour de force, subverting all formal expectations.
