Storyline

Pablo’s Hippos recounts the absurd and paradoxical history of Colombia’s thirty-year struggle with international drug trafficking, at once a farce and a tragedy, as seen through the eyes of the extravagant pet of the most powerful drug baron in history: a hippopotamus named Pablo.

The incredible journey of 30 years of narco-trafficking and civil war in Colombia, seen through the naive eyes of Colombia’s most powerful drug trafficker’s extravagant pet hippopotamus. We follow the journey of Pablo Escobar’s hippos – how they arrived from Africa, adapted, survived and subsequently developed into the new lords of the rivers – a parallel to Colombia’s own socio-economic adaptation and survival through years of struggle.