The Colombian film director Antonio von Hildebrand, came to visit Mexico City and organized an exclusive screening of his documentary “Pablos Hippos” for The Lift.

Supported by the BBC and Sundance Chanel, the documentary is about the period in Colombia where there was a high level of violence during the reign of the late and famous Colombian drug-lord Pablo Escobar, he happened to have a zoo inside of his luxurious Hacienda Napoles and when he was murdered, many of these animals escaped, but those who have survives were his hippopotamus who then became a problem for the neighboring area as despite their sweet looks, they are actually some of the most dangerous animals on Earth. With the participation of Jose Maria Yazpik and the collaboration of writer and columnist Antonio Caballero. Pablos Hippos is a good combination of acid humor and reflection. Here is an exclusive interview interview with the film director for The Lift.

1. Being Colombian for me means to be very similar to a Mexican… our karma is to share drug-lords and politicians, rancheras-music and bandits, drug and car trafficking, hangovers and being homesick, punctuality is exactly the same and talking about soccer goes on forever as both countries love to discuss…being Colombian or being Mexican is an act of faith!

2. I started to b a film director because I had to steal stories! Because movies are similar to a large crime, as soon as the work is done, they lead you towards the execution wall and the first shot hasn´t even happened and you already want to go back and commit the crime again…the crime of making movies. Little by little one starts learning and loses the fear to this business, luckily, you´ll then turn into a professional criminal.

3. One of the reasons I chose to do the documentary about Pablo Escobar was so that I could tell the story of my childhood, and when I discovered such an absurd and grotesque metaphor, I knew it was a unique opportunity to make fun of myself and so people would make fun of me.

4. One of the things I learned from Pablos Hippos is that drug trafficking can´t be stopped by anyone, the real war should be fought against violence and not against drug trafficking. We are the ones handling the violence, drug trafficking is a business of rich northern countries. We have to fight what we can change…

5. I wish that Pablos Hippos documentary will one day be shown at schools so that the next generation avoids repeating our stupid mistakes.

6. For me, a hippopotamus is a fat, useless, violent, trivial, uninvolved, unbearable being and who doesn´t belong in this continent ( neither in this planet) they are really a bunch of BASTARDOTAMUS!

7. My next project will be about the same subject (drug-lords), but without the hippopotamus…

8. A phrase that is always with me is “the road of the excess takes you to the palace of wisdom”