Pepe (2024 film)

2024 film by Nelson Carlo de Los Santos Arias

Pepe

Festival release poster

Directed by| Nelson Carlo De Los Santos Arias
Screenplay by|

* Nelson Carlo De Los Santos Arias

Produced by|

* Nelson Carlo De Los Santos Arias
* Pablo Lozano
* Tanya Valette

Starring|

* Jhon Narváez
* Sor María Ríos

Cinematography|

* Camilo Soratti
* Roman Lechapelier
* Nelson Carlos De Los Santos Arias

Edited by|

* Tom Swash
* Nelson Carlos De Los Santos Arias

Music by| Nelson Carlos De Los Santos Arias
Animation by|

* Erwin Jiménez
* Manuel Barenboim

Production
companies

* 4 A 4 Productions
* Pandora Film
* Joe Vision Production

Distributed by| Monte & Culebra

Release date

* 20 February 2024 (2024-02-20) (Berlinale)

Running time

| 122 minutes
Countries|

* Dominican Republic
* Namibia
* Germany
* France

Languages|

* Spanish
* Afrikaans
* Mbukushu
* German

Pepe is a 2024 drama film written and directed by Nelson Carlo De Los Santos Arias. The film starring Jhon Narváez and Sor María Ríos, is voice of Pepe, the first and last hippo killed in the Americas, who appears as ghost and recounts his story with the powerful oral tradition of these communities.[1][2]

The film is an international co-production between Dominican Republic, Namibia, Germany, and France, and had its world premiere at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival on 20 February, where it competed for the Golden Bear.[3]

## Synopsis

[edit]

A young hippopotamus known by the name Pepe, which the media gave it, was killed in the jungle of Colombia but returns in the form of a ghost. It is a hippo's voice, or so it says. It has no sense of time, only of the past that haunts it. "Is that noise mine? What is this thing I use to make it?" The animal is certain of one thing: it is no longer alive. It was the first and last of its kind to be slain in the Americas. We are drawn into a world of many tales, each containing more tales within. With seriousness and humor, honesty and trickery, images and sounds convey the powerful dialogue of places where creatures like Pepe perished without ever grasping the true nature of their situation.

## Cast

[edit]

As Pepe

* Jhon Narváez
* Fareed Matjila
* Harmony Ahalwa
* Shifafure Faustinus

Others

* Sor María Ríos as Betania
* Jorge Puntillón García as Candelario
* Steven Alexander as Cocorico
* Nicolás Marín Caly as Ángel
* Wolfgang Fuhrmann as Señor Heribert (Cazador)

## Production

[edit]

Pepe, is a hippopotamus who was shifted from his homeland in Africa to Colombia to reside in the private zoo of drug lord Pablo Escobar. The story is 'narrated' by the animal. Carlo Chatrian artistic director of the Berlinale, categoried the film directed by Dominican Nelson Carlos De Los Santos Arias, as "the film featured a blend of genres and styles, making it the most “unclassifiable” film in the selection."[4]

The film is supported by World Cinema Fund, which was launched in 2004 on the initiative of the Federal Cultural Foundation and the Berlinale, and is one of twelve films invited to Berlinale.[5]

The film was shot in locations in Namibia and Colombia.[6]

## Release

[edit]

Pepe had its world premiere on 20 February 2024, as part of the 74th Berlin International Film Festival, in Competition.[7][8]

The film will be first screened at the 48th Hong Kong International Film Festival on 3 April 2024 in Firebird Awards Young Cinema competition.[9][10]

The film was featured in Features section of the 71st Sydney Film Festival on June 6, 2024.[11] It was also selected in Wavelengths at 2024 Toronto International Film Festival which will be held from September 5 to 15, 2024.[12] It was also featured in Zabaltegi-Tabakalera section of 72nd San Sebastián International Film Festival, which will take place from 20 to 28 September 2024.[13]

## Reception

[edit]

On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes website, the film has an approval rating of 70% based on 10 reviews, with an average rating of 9/10.[14]

Jessica Kiang reviewing in Variety said, "Nelson Carlo De Los Santos Arias sends us on an uncategorizably odd journey down the river of his noodling, needling imagination in a rickety canoe that keeps on capsizing, upended by another sideswiping reference, another jarring change of scene and timeframe or yet another stretch of borderline incomprehensible narration from Pepe himself, a creature who is as surprised as we are that he has suddenly acquired language."[15]

David Rooney reviewing the film for The Hollywood Reporter dubbed it as "Structurally messy but oddly haunting," and opined, " the film achieves full force in a breathtaking final image as the camera zooms out high above the sad spectacle of Pepe felled by bullets in lush green grassland, a half-circle of gawping humans standing over the hippo’s bloodied body." Rooney concluded, "The uneven movie is worth seeing for that shot alone."[16]

Marc van de Klashorst reviewed the film for the International Cinephile Society and remarked that the film is "most notable for the incredible nature of its story and for its fine camera and sound work, the hybrid film is enjoyable but overlong, and a prime example of a film that screams for post-viewing research."[17]

Wendy Ide wrote in ScreenDaily while reviewing the film at Berlinale, "Pepe is crammed, perhaps even overstuffed, with ideas, but which, like the huge beasts at the heart of the story, is deceptively agile and light on its feet."[18]

Ola Salwa reviewing the film at Berlinale for Cineuropa wrote, "While the peculiar sound the eponymous hippo makes in Nelson Carlo De Los Santos Arias’s film lingers in the mind after the screening, everything else is washed away quickly."[19]

Nicholas Bell in Ion Cinema rated the film with four stars and said, "Nelson Carlo De Los Santos Arias concocts a continually unpredictable visual and narrative journey which continually shifts and splinters perspectives." Concluding Bell opined, "If there’s any way to rightly convey the essence of what de Los Santo Arias has conjured, Pepe plays like a version of Dumbo as directed by Miguel Gomes."[20]

Writing for RogerEbert.com, Robert Daniels opined, "Pepe’s voice is initially difficult to take seriously: It’s a deep timbre, composed of hooting and grunting. But once the film settles in, guided by Pepe’s poetic recollections of how much he misses an Africa he never knew, the restrictions he must endure while in captivity, the pain of being exiled, and the fear of hearing the whirring of a chopper, the incredulity felt by the viewer is replaced by real sorrow.[21]"

## Accolades

[edit]

Nelson Carlo De Los Santos Arias at Berlinale 2024

The film was selected in Competition at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival, thusly it was nominated to compete for Golden Bear.

Award  | Date  | Category  | Recipient  | Result  | Ref.

|
|
|
|
|

Berlin International Film Festival | 25 February 2024 | Golden Bear | Nelson Carlo De Los Santos Arias  | Nominated  | [4][22]
Silver Bear for Best Director  | Won

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "Pepe". Berlinale. 6 February 2024. Retrieved 7 February 2024.
2. ^ De Los Santos Arias, Nelson Carlo (22 January 2024). "Pepe". Cineuropa. Retrieved 7 February 2024.
3. ^ Abbatescianni, Davide (22 January 2024). "The Berlinale unveils its Competition and Encounters titles". Cineuropa. Retrieved 7 February 2024.
4. ^ a b Rosser, Michael (22 January 2024). "Berlin film festival reveals 2024 competition line-up". ScreenDaily. Retrieved 7 February 2024.
5. ^ "World Cinema Fund with Twelve Films in the Berlinale Programme / WCF Day 2024 / German Federal Cultural Foundation Extends and Increases Funding". Berlinale. 29 January 2024. Retrieved 7 February 2024.
6. ^ "PEPE, la Imaginación en el Tercer Cine (Pepe, Imagination in the third cinema)" [Pepe, Imagination in the Third Cinema (Pepe, Imagination in the third cinema)]. Pandora Film (in Spanish). 7 February 2024. Retrieved 7 February 2024.
7. ^ Ntim, Zac (22 January 2024). "Berlin Reveals 2024 Competition Lineup: Rooney Mara, Mati Diop, Isabelle Huppert, Abderrahmane Sissako Movies Among Selection". Deadline. Retrieved 7 February 2024.
8. ^ "Pepe". Berlinale. 6 February 2024. Retrieved 7 February 2024.
9. ^ Patrick Frater (8 March 2024). "Hong Kong Film Festival to Open With Ray Yeung's 'All Shall Be Well,' Close With Japanese Charmer 'All the Long Nights'". Variety. Retrieved 10 March 2024.
10. ^ "Pepe". HKIFF. 6 March 2024. Retrieved 10 March 2024.
11. ^ "Pepe". Sydney Film Festival Festival. 8 June 2024. Retrieved 23 July 2024.
12. ^ Etan Vlessing (8 August 2024). "Toronto Film Fest Adds Wang Bing, Roberto Minervini, Miguel Gomes Films to Wavelengths". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 9 August 2024.
13. ^ "La película 'Dahomey' de Mati Diop inaugurará la sección Zabaltegi del 72 Festival de Cine de San Sebastián" [Mati Diop's film 'Dahomey' will open the Zabaltegi section of the 72nd San Sebastian Film Festival]. Europa Press (in Spanish). 27 August 2024. Retrieved 28 August 2024.
14. ^ "Pepe (2024, Drama)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved 2 May 2024.
15. ^ Jessica Kiang (20 February 2024). "'Pepe' Review: An Opaque, Experimental Odyssey Through the Afterlife Consciousness of a 'Cocaine Hippo'". Variety. Retrieved 20 February 2024.
16. ^ David Rooney (20 February 2024). "'Pepe' Review: A Footnote in the Pablo Escobar Saga Is Dreamily Reimagined as a Hippo's Reflections on Life and Death". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 20 February 2024.
17. ^ Marc, van de Klashorst (20 February 2024). "Berlinale 2024 review: Pepe (Nelson Carlos De Los Santos Arias)". International Cinephile Society. Retrieved 20 February 2024.
18. ^ Ide, Wendy (20 February 2024). "'Pepe': Berlin Review". ScreenDaily. Retrieved 20 February 2024.
19. ^ Salwa, Ola (21 February 2024). "Review: Pepe". Cineuropa. Retrieved 21 February 2024.
20. ^ Nicholas Bell (20 February 2024). "Cocaine Hippo: de Los Santos Arias Explores an Assassination". Ion Cinema. Retrieved 21 February 2024.
21. ^ Daniels, Robert. "Berlin Film Festival 2024: Abiding Nowhere, Pepe, No Other Land | Festivals & Awards | Roger Ebert". RogerEbert.com. Retrieved 22 February 2024.
22. ^ Scott Roxborough (24 February 2024). "Mati Diop Doc 'Dahomey' Wins Berlin Golden Bear". Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 24 February 2024.

## External links

[edit]

* Pepe at IMDb
* Pepe at Rotten Tomatoes
* Pepe at Berlinale
* Pepe at Unifrance

*[Ref.]: Reference(s)