A voice that claims to belong to a hippopotamus. A voice that does not understand the perception of time. A voice that tells of a historical event as if in a trance. “Am I making that sound that comes out of my mouth? And what is a mouth anyway?” The only thing the animal knows for sure is that it is dead. The first and only hippopotamus ever killed in the Americas. The Colombian press called him Pepe. Between encounters and misunderstandings, epiphanies and sadness, we enter a world full of stories replete with even more stories. In a serious and playful way, both authentic and deceptive, images and sounds narrate the overwhelming orality of places full of beings who, like Pepe, died without ever knowing where they really were. – Berlinale
Nelson Carlo de los Santos Arias
DO, FR, NA, DE 2024
Silver Bear Berlinale
122 min | Spanish, African idioms
Nelson Carlo de los Santos Arias
Born 1985 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Studied film in Buenos Aires and Edinburgh (experimental film), graduated from the California Institute of the Arts. Exhibitions and festival participations, including at the Guggenheim Museum and at the FID Marseille and Locarno.
Films (selection)
Santa Teresa & Otras Historias 2015 | Cocote 2017 | Pepe 2024
Credits
B+E+M: Nelson Carlo De Los Santos Arias | DOP: Camilo Soratti, Roman Lechapelier, Nelson Carlo De Los Santos Arias | S: Nahuel Palenque | SD: Nahuel Palenque, Nelson Carlo De Los Santos | P: Pablo Lozano, Tanya Valette, Nelson Carlo De Los Santos Arias | Sales: Pandora Film | With Jhon Narváez, Sor María Ríos, Fareed Matjila, Harmony Ahalwa, Jorge Puntillón García, Shifafure Faustinus, Steven Alexander, Nicolás Marín Caly