“A documentary from the 1980s, now premiering in a restored version, is an eye-opening visit to a Peruvian penal colony.” - NYTIMES
"Sepa: Nuestro Señor de los Milagros Our Lord of the Miracles, is the name of a swamp-glittering prison colony in the remote Peruvian jungle on the Rio Sepa. This is the dumping ground where the worst prisons in the country send their toughest of the tough. A bizarre island of freedom where tragedy and absurdity create a close-in world seemingly invented from feverish dreams. Here are murderers who survived the taking of hostages and the subsequent massacre at Lurigancho prison (documented in the film), and prisoners who have done 8 years extra time simply because their release papers were lost; there is one who fought his way from the highlands on foot, taking weeks to get here to serve his sentence. There is also a headhunter, a drug boss and “el Invisible”, the invisible one. The 65 year old, half deaf prison director, Don Elias, in tropical clothing, and wearing a straw hat, calls them all “mis angelitos”, my little angels." - Werner Herzog
“This newly rediscovered film is a unique documentary record of a bold and troubling experiment in criminal justice. A collaboration between Walter Saxer, the producer of Werner Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo, and the Peruvian Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa, Sepa, Nuestra Señor de los Milagros observes an open-air penal colony of the same name, created in 1951 by the Peruvian government in the Amazonian jungle. The inmates were permitted to roam freely, commune with their families, and dance and cook together. Yet, they soon found themselves in despair, tasked with growing crops on these colonized lands, abandoned and forgotten by their country and the world.
Restored in 4K by Cinematheque Suisse and Cineteca di Bologna in collaboration with the Ministerio de Cultura del Peru at the L'Immagine Ritrovata laboratory starting from the original 16mm camera negative and the sound preserved at Yacumama Films.” - DEKANALOG
Credits:
Written & directed by: Walter Saxer Co-written by: Mario Vargas Llosa Director of Photography: Rainer Klausman Editor: Micki Joani Music: Jindrich Konir Sound: Haymo Henry Hayder Camera Assitant: Jorge Vignati Ojeda Production Manager: Gustavo Cerff Arbulu Co-Production: Alive Film & TV Production, Zurich Producer: Walter Saxer, Micaela Saxer Associate Producer: Quentin Pistol Financed with funds from the Swiss Government EDI, Bern Restored with funds from the Peruvian Ministry of Culture, Cineteca Di Bologna, Cinemateque Suisse, Lousanne, Yacumama Films E.I.R.L, Iquitos, Peru
Run time: 79 minutes Language: Spanish, English, and German Subtitles: English Color: Color Format: 1.33:1 Sound: Mono
