Two Latin American films were announced today among the twenty productions selected for the main competition at the 74th edition of the Berlin Film Festival, vying for the Golden Bear: La Cocina by Mexican director Alonso Ruizpalacios and Pepe by Dominican director Nelson Carlo de los Santos Arias, both in their world premiere.
Ruizpalacios, returns to the Berlinale for a fourth time—after Güeros, winner of the Best First Film Award; and the two-time Silver Bear winner for A Cop Movie in 2022 and Museo in 2018—with his English-language debut La Cocina starring American actress Rooney Mara and Raúl Briones. The drama is set over the course of a single day in a bustling New York City restaurant. Briones plays an undocumented cook in a relationship with Julia (Mara), an American waitress who cannot commit to their relationship
Blending genres and styles, De los Santos Arias’ Pepe is the most “unclassifiable” film in the selection according to the Berlinale’s Artistic Director Carlo Chatrian. The film tells the story of a young hippopotamus that was killed years after it was taken from his homeland in Africa to to reside in the private zoo of drug lord Pablo Escobar in Colombia, but returns in the form of a ghost.
Additionally, the Berlinale will also host the world premiere of the dystopian sci-fi drama Another End by Italian director Piero Messina starring Mexican actor Gael García Bernal.
In the Encounter selection, three Latin American films will also have their world premiere: Cidade; Campo by Brazilian director Juliana Rojas, the Brazilian-Argentine co-production Sleep With Your Eyes Open by Nele Wohlatz; andYou Burn Me, the latest film by Argentine director Matías Piñeiro.
The 74th edition of the Berlin Film Festival will take place February 15-25.
