Colombian superstar singer Juanes, from left, Alberto Guerra and Alejandro Speitzer play three brothers fighting for survival against a rival organization in Pimpinero: Blood and Oil.The Associated Press
Colombian director Andres Baiz is no stranger to the world of cartel crime dramas. After all, he was one of the directors behind the hit show, Narcos, based on the life of notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar.
However, Baiz wasn’t that aware of the high stakes involved in being a pimpinero, a gasoline smuggler working along the border of Colombia and Venezuela, until he started shooting a few episodes of Narcos in Santa Marta, one of the oldest cities in his country.
“I saw a line of cars going full speed, full of gas and with very young drivers. They didn’t stop at anything. People told me this is a ‘death caravan,’ with kamikaze drivers coming from Venezuela,” Baiz said in an interview at the most recent Toronto International Film Festival.
His latest film, Pimpinero: Blood and Oil, had its world premiere at TIFF and is billed as a gripping thriller on the subject, set in the treacherous desert bordering the two South American countries.
Baiz elaborated on what he found out about the perils of the dangerous trade that flourished in Venezuela during the presidency of Hugo Chavez, with the smugglers taking advantage of the rock bottom prices of petrol. It all sounded like there was a good action movie waiting to be made.
After some research into the lives of the gasoline smugglers, including interviewing people and taking photographs of the badlands between Colombia and Venezuela, Baiz brought Maria Camila Arias as a co-writer to add depth to the story.
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“We added a love story, and added humanity to all these characters, and put a spotlight on what’s happening in this border in between” the two countries, he said.
Moises (Colombian superstar singer Juanes, who goes by one name) is the eldest of three Estrada brothers ferrying the fuel; his younger siblings are Ulises (Alberto Guerra) and Juan (Alejandro Speitzer). The family is turfed out of the business by a more powerful, rival organization headed by Don Carmelo (David Noreña).
When Moises retires to open a restaurant, Ulises joins the rival gang. Meanwhile Juan decides to strike it on his own, partially egged on by his girlfriend, Diana (Laura Osma), who wants to follow her family’s legacy and become a pimpinera herself.
Ulises’s liaison with Carmelo turns out to have implications for Juan, who also gets entangled in Carmelo’s nefarious dealings. Meanwhile, Diana goes undercover to expose the deeper underbelly of the illegal business that ultimately tests familial ties.
Eagle-eyed viewers with long memories might remember Juanes from a cameo appearance in popular TV series Jane The Virgin, but the Colombian singer didn’t have any plans to be an actor. A musician foremost, he loved watching movies and had been a fan of Baiz’s work.
So when he got home one day, and his wife told him that Baiz had called looking for him, Juanes immediately called back. When he heard that Baiz was interested in casting him for a movie about pimpineros, he was even more intrigued – enough to send in an audition tape.
“I am from Colombia, so I understand this issue. And it was a big opportunity for me,” Juanes said in an interview. “I was doing something totally different from my comfort zone. The first thing Andy told me was, ‘I don’t want your music. I just want you as an actor.’
“It was like a challenge for me just to learn how to be more serious. How to be another person, but also using a lot of things from my memories, my psychology. And imagination, of course.”
Although Juanes was aware of the existence of pimpineros, he didn’t have deep insights into their lives. That’s where Baiz’s research came in handy. It took almost a decade from the time Baiz first thought of the idea until the film was finally done.
During that time, Baiz said, he also grew up as a director. Although he’d started with the idea of an action film, the subject matter was complex. The movie isn’t just about geographical frontiers, but also about emotional, ethical and moral frontiers, while telling the story of a family.
“A whole world opened up to me, when I did the research and saw there was so much love and hate happening in this war – and in borders around the world. And I wanted to bring compassion and a sense of light,” he said.
“I think it’s important to put that spotlight on Latin America, and what’s happening in this border in particular.”
And given all the conversations around borders and immigration at the moment, he’s also trying to make a larger point, Baiz added. While shooting in the La Guajira desert in Colombia, which Juanes describes as a “beautiful but forgotten kind of place,” they worked with the local indigenous community, who welcomed them into their ancestral lands. It turned out to be a no man’s land kind of a zone, where there were no real borders.
“One moment you’re in Venezuela, one moment you’re in Colombia. There’s no line that really marks it. And it just makes you think – we’re all the same,” Baiz said.
