If I have to describe Pimpinero: Blood and Oil with one single word, then that would be ‘strange’. This is not necessarily a criticism, by the way. Halfway into it, Pimpinero (I’m not going to use the tagline every time) introduces a major mystery—what really happened to Juan? He is, of course, the male lead who unexpectedly exits the stage at that point. The rest of the film unfolds a lot like an investigative thriller, which we see from Juan’s girlfriend Diana’s perspective. And the movie feels drastically different (and better) from the first half, which is your usual gritty drama for the most part. Again, I am not quite criticizing, but the movie could have benefited from a more seamless narrative without the tonal shift. That said, the climax still works in its favor, and I am glad that there isn’t much of a twist.
Spoilers Ahead
What happens in the movie?
The term ‘pimpinero’ means smugglers, and true to the name, the story is set against the backdrop of the gasoline smuggling racket around the border between Venezuela and Colombia. In Venezuela, gas is dirt cheap, while in Colombia, it is sold at an inflated rate due to a severe scarcity. So the Colombian smugglers illegally cross the border to bring gas and then sell it—that’s the gist of the business. At the center of it we have the Estrada clan—brothers Moises, Ulises, and Juan. They’ve been at this thing for a long time, but lately things have not been good. The reason behind that is their much more organized, powerful rival, Don Carmelo. The story begins with Carmelo destroying a bridge, blocking the trade route for the Estradas, and then further threatening to murder an Estrada worker. His policy is simple—join or die. When he offers that to the Estradas, Ulises changes sides because of his huge gambling debt to this sleazy man, Miguel. Moises goes into retirement and opens a restaurant with his wife, Bianca. But Juan refuses to let go of his pride and decides to run the business on his own. Well, Juan has his girlfriend Diana on his side, who proves to be competent enough. Diana’s deceased father, Alvarez, was also quite a legend in this business. Unsurprisingly, Juan and Diana do face quite a number of hurdles during their first run. The Venezuelan dealer Gonzalo tells them that Carmelo has asked him not to trade with anyone else. On their way back, their gas also gets stolen by a group of pirates. However, Juan would rather have pirates stealing from him than Carmelo or the cops.
Does Juan die?
It was a given that Carmelo would make things more difficult for Juan. Not only does he have more men at his disposal and a business that’s very organized, he also has the law in his pocket as he knows the governor. Does that have anything to do with Juan getting caught by the police during one of his runs? Most likely yes. And with Juan behind bars, Diana has no choice but to request Carmelo to help. She does get the help, but a favor like this from someone like Carmelo can never come without a price. As a result, Juan gets out, but he now has to work for Carmelo. Seeing no choice but to get on with it, Juan gets to work with the determination of saving up enough money and eventually getting out of the scene with Diana.
Unfortunately, things don’t go as per plan for Juan. Smuggling gasoline is one thing, but he draws the line at trafficking young kids and selling them into prostitution. It comes as no surprise that gasoline is not Carmelo’s only business. He definitely had something more shady going on, and it turned out to be this only. Well, his business is only trafficking the Venezuelans to Colombia and then sending them to different industries; prostitution is one among those. No way that makes him a saint, though. Anyway, upon finding out what he really has to do, Juan understandably refuses and tries to save this girl, Gabriella. Sadly, Ulises cannot allow that, as he is not only answerable to Carmelo; he still owes a lot of money to Miguel. So he ends up doing the unimaginable, shooting his own brother. He covers it up by making it look like an accident, but digs his grave deeper as Miguel happens to witness it, and now he has to pay the thug more money. The narrative keeps Juan’s death a mystery until the very end, of course, and it even seems like he might have survived at times.
Is Diana dead?
Diana’s world turns upside down with Juan gone, as she starts blaming herself for his death. Had she not made the deal with a devil like Carmelo, Juan would have still remained in prison, but more importantly—alive. Shaken with grief, Diana also refuses to believe that Juan’s death was just an accident and continues to investigate the matter on her own. She does confront Ulises, who continues to claim it was an accident, but Diana finds it hard to believe that Juan, an exceptionally good driver, would die in a car accident on a desert trail that doesn’t look dangerous at all. Upon visiting the exact location where Juan died, Diana finds a bullet. She comes back to charge Ulises again, but that goes in vain. What’s even worse is Miguel and his driver forcefully abduct her in front of Ulises. When they try to rape Diana, the pirates (from the beginning) arrive and save her. Diano goes with the pirates, processes everything, and then does something very smart. Pretending to be a Venezuelan refugee, she gets smuggled back to Columbia—to a refugee camp set up by none other than Carmelo. Obviously this is how Diana finds out what really happened to Juan. But she also gets caught, and Carmelo sends her directly to his brothel, where we also find Gabriella—the girl who Juan once tried to save.
Diana would have been doomed for life, but thankfully, Ulises finally finds his conscience and saves her from being violated by Miguel. He shoots Miguel and as many men as possible, enough for Diana and Gabriela to get away. In the end though, Ulises is shot to death by Carmelo’s right-hand man, Evaristo. That follows an intense car chase where Diana and Gabriella find Evaristo hot on their heels. He even shoots at them, and the car crashes, and thanks to Gabriella, Diana manages to take care of Evaristo. She goes back to the pirates again and bids them goodbye. Pimpinero ends with Diana riding her bike (that she got from the pirates) through the desert into the sun. Carmelo is still at large, but I suppose she is now going far away from all this madness. It is entirely possible for her to go and attack him, but I wouldn’t bet on that. In any case, the ending of Pimpinero is nothing but a picture of hope, as it should be.
