‘Pepe’ Review: The Odyssey Of An Outcast Hippo – Berlin Film Festival
A hippopotamus is a semi-aquatic animal native to sub-Saharan Africa. However, in the early 1990s, hippos and other wild animals ran amok in South America, thanks to drug lord Pablo Escobar and the exotic menagerie at his Hacienda Nápoles estate.
After his death, the animals were left to their own devices. Some were sent to zoos, others facing an uncertain future — but not Pepe, he chose to carve his own path. At the center of Nelson Carlos de Los Santos Arias’ Berlin Premiere film, Pepe is titular nickname of the rogue hippo who escaped into the wilderness and left a trail of destruction in his wake.
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Pepe meets a tragic end, but not before pondering life’s profoundest questions. Voiced by a chorus of actors including Jhon Narváez, Harmony Ahalwa, Fareed Matjila, and Shifafure Faustinus, the hippo waxes poetic about his own death and the circumstances leading up to it. We learn he was one of several hippos imported to Escobar’s Colombian estate from Africa. When Escobar died in 1993, Pepe escaped into the wilderness, terrorizing fishermen along the Magdalena River until the government ordered his execution — making him the first and only hippo killed in the Americas.
This posthumous narration makes for an unconventional narrative structure. Much of Arias’ film unfolds through Pepe’s guttural monologues amid stark and unpredictable visuals — either a black screen or dim, hazy footage, a scene of animation, or a scene shot in verite style. He contemplates his sudden relocation to Colombia, his confusion over his untimely end at humanity’s hands. Arias provides little concrete plotting in Pepe, leaving the audience to piece together the allegorical significance of the hippo’s fate. Like a refugee, he was exiled violently from his homeland into hostile territory. His inability to comprehend human motives only compounds his pain.
Seen in this light, Pepe recalls Jerzy Skolimowski’s 2022 film EO, told through the perspective of a mistreated circus donkey. Both films argue that human society inflicts severe existential crises upon animals. Like refugees, they did not choose their fates. Pepe’s ongoing ills ensure his story becomes a cautionary tale – leave wild creatures where they belong. #JusticeForPepe
Title: Pepe
Festival: Berlin (Competition)
Director: Nelson Carlos de Los Santos Arias
Cast: Jhon Narváez, Harmony Ahalwa, Fareed Matjila, Shifafure Faustinus, Jorge Puntillón García, Nicolás Marín Caly, Sor María Ríos, Steven Alexander
Running time: 2 hr 2 mins
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