Juanes Will Make Official Film Debut in ‘Pimpinero: Blood and Oil’

The Colombian director Andrés Baiz is preparing the release of his fourth feature film, Pimpinero: Sangre y Gasolina, or Blood and Oil. Premiering next month at Toronto International Film Festival, the Prime Video project marks the director’s first full-length release in more than 10 years. As he makes his grand return to the big screen, Grammy Award-winning musician Juanes will make his official acting debut in the feature-length film.

“In the desert bordering Colombia and Venezuela, gasoline smugglers known as ‘pimpineros’ risk their lives transporting illegal fuel from one country to another,” a synopsis of the film reads. “When Juan — the youngest in a clan of three brothers entangled in this perilous trade — is forced to work for a sinister rival, the underbelly of the business is laid bare with tragic consequences. Determined to uncover the gruesome secrets that shroud this no-man’s-land, Juan’s girlfriend Diana embarks on a quest for the truth.”

Pimpinero: Sangre y Gasolina hasn’t yet received a trailer release, but Prime Video offered a few glimpses into the movie with a set of first-look photos. The images capture the tension at the core of the film, which takes place between Venezuela and Colombia.

“Pimpinero is about geographical and physical borders, but above all about ethical, moral and emotional borders,” Baiz shared in a statement, according to Remezcla. “The result is an exciting film, full of beauty, truth, and a lot of adrenaline. I look forward to sharing it with the public.”

Juanes will star in Pimpinero: Sangre y Gasolina as Moises, appearing alongside Alberto Guerra and Alejandro Speitzer. Guerra most recently appeared in Netflix’s cartel drama miniseries Griselda, which was also directed by Baiz.

The film will be Juanes’ first non-musical performance of this magnitude, though it’s not his first exploration of the industry. In 2017 he composed the original core “Lay Your Head on Me” for the animated film Ferdinand and voiced the character Juan. And in 2014, he appeared as Elliot Lantana in one episode of Jane the Virgin.

Juanes has had his sets on expanding as an actor for years. In 2017, he worked with director Kacho López Mari on the visual album Mis Planes Son Amarte. Throughout the audiovisual project, he leans into different charactes and settings to create an action-packed narrative adventure. “I thought it would be cool to [not] be the singer, but to play a character,” Juanes told Miami New Times at the time. “I had always liked the idea of acting, but I had never tried it, and I thought I could.”