Pimpinero - Blut und Benzin

Had the opportunity to watch the film in the Toronto International Film Festival 2024.

It´s a must watch!!!

One of the best movies ever filmed in South America.

The Director Andres Baiz is touching another nerve of the Colombian culture on the rude enviroment of La Guajira and the border between Venezuela and Colombia.

The film takes audiences on an intense, emotional journey as it follows three brothers - Moisés (Juanes), Ulises (Alberto Guerra), and Juan (Alejandro Speitzer)- as they descend into the intrigue, corruption, and moral chaos of the organized crime world. Alongside them is Diana (Laura Osma), a resilient and rebellious young woman on her own quest for truth. The pervasive smell of gasoline serves as a metaphor for the film's volatile atmosphere, where ignited fires lead to irreversible consequences.

"They devour everything they touch, that type."

On the border between Colombia and Venezuela gasoline is worth fifty times more on one side than it is on the other. This creates a powerful incentive to go against the grain. Gasoline smugglers (pimpineros) jostle for profits with corrupt cops and soldiers, insatiable gangs, the desolate landscape, and unreliable machines. Three brothers working independently as pimpineros find themselves in a downward spiral when one of them goes into debt with an unsavory rival who smuggles not just oil but humans as well.

Purity must die before anyone has a chance of getting free in this tense thriller about corruption, betrayal, and dark secrets. There is a lot of potential here and many exhilarating moments, such as a scene where a woman is dancing with her lover in a fantasy, but things don't gel just right. The film needs just a little extra umph in places. Still, I had a great time watching this.

Director Andrés Baiz, present at this Toronto International Film Festival screening, said he once asked a group of kids about choosing superpowers. They talked about teleporting from one place to another, being invisible, or going back in time. Baiz realized that cinema gives audiences all three powers at once. How true. Pimpinero: Blood and Oil takes us back ten years to the border of Columbia and Venezuela where smugglers and their goods disappear in the darkness.

First Colombian action movie different from the stereotype of narcs that predominates in Colombian films. It talks about real situation everyone ignores, the hidden Colombia that no many wants to explore. Beautiful and diverse scenarios in places different form the ones known in Colombia. An invitation to know more about the wayuu culture and their way to find justice. Strong characters, subtle ideas for you to make the assumptions of what you know will happen in a parallel story. I will recommend to give you an opportunity and watch this movie. If you look for something different, this is one of them.

It is a vibrant film, with outstanding performances, especially from Calero, who really gets into character and the character's evilness stands out. Calero is a crack, for me the real protagonist is Guerra, he carries the weight of the plot in a splendid way, a great actor of the new Mexican era. The little that Juanes did, he did very well. Highly recommended. The action scenes and the settings and scenery are very well done. The outdoors and photography of the film stands out highly, achieving beautiful sunset shots. Colombian actors are improving and is nice to see this type of productions being produced more ofen lately.