Pantaleão e as Visitadoras

I have seen this movie twice; once in Peru, and the second time in Miami last june. This is an excellent film that has recently been released in major cities like Los Angeles and Chicago. This movie tells the story of Captain Pantoja a very correct and loyal member of the Peruvian army. He is sent to Iquitos, where he is assigned a secret mission; to take care of all the horny servicemen by creating a service of prostitution that will put a stop to all the undesired pregnancies that seem to plague the region. The cast is excellent, and the acting of Salvador Del Solar and the rest of the cast is nothing less of sincere and outstanding. The eroticism may not go well with American critics, but fans of foreign cinema will love this flick. Francisco Lombardi is by far one of the best Latin American directors, sadly Americans seem to care very little for movies that won't appeal to the masses.

"Pantaleon y las Visitadoras" tells of a gung-ho Peruvian Army Captain (del Solar) who is ordered to staff a small corps of happy hookers to improve morale at remote Amazon jungle military outposts. The extremely efficient, straight laced, married Captain, however, finds he has his hands full (in more ways than one) once his troop of hotties (aka: Pantyland) is deployed. With mixed reviews from the critics and respectable marks from the public, this fun little Peruvian dramady gets off to a slow start, runs a tad long at two hours, and is sexy, silly, sweaty, and sepia, making for a lukewarm watch which will appeal most to foreign film freaks into flicks from south of the border. (B-)

This movie is based on a book by the famous latin writer Mario Vargas Llosa. The movie is set in Peru, where a very self-disciplined militar man (Pantaleon Pantoja) is ordered to go to a jungle town and set up a service of prostitutes for all the militar men from Peru. The movie is very faithful to the original book, and the presence of the actress angie cepeda as "the colombiana" is very striking, she looks superb in the role of the prostitute who falls in love with Pantaleon. I recommend this movie, its worth the time, specially if you dont have much free time to read the original book. I give it a 8 out of 10

I read the book about 1988 and saw most of the movie on TV in Lima in June 2002. The movie captured the spirit of the book very well.

I worked as a civilian employee in a military agency for 30 years. Never during my career did I encounter an officer who was as dedicated and competent as Pantaleon Pantojas. That was the striking feature in the book and in the movie, as well.

Although Iquitos, the city on the Amazon where much of the movie was filmed, is much larger than what is shown in the movie, some elements of the life on the river are reflected in the film.

Can anyone tell me where I can purchase a VHS copy of the movie?

Hugh

Pantaleón y las visitadoras , I saw that movie at the Montreal Word Films Festival 2000 on August 28. I didn't know what to expect at first from the title of that movie , I had no idea what the movie was about. Let me tell you I was agreeably surprised. That movie is based on a Mario Vargas Llosa book is very very good piece on entertainment. The story, the actors and the settings was entertaining and well rendered, this is a very good comedy to me. I would recommend it no question ask to anyone ... I hope that this movie will come out on VHS format so I can buy it and show it to my friends. The only problem with the projection that I have attended was the quality of the actual film, I don't know if it was intended (maybe) or not but a lot of exterior scenes had a yellowish halo to it like if the director would have put a yellow filter over the camera lense and also the quality of the film with some badly made cut overs was questionnable. But overall it was a very good comedy with an original story. Finally let me tell you guys that the actress playing the role of Columbiana, Angie Cepeda, is one hot lady, my god we are not used to see that many south american movie up here in Canada and that latino women is a devilish beauty.