The Brooklyn Rail

Micaela Saxer and Sepa, Nuestro Señor de Los Milagros

Sepa, or Colonia Penal Agrícola del Sepa, was an open-air penal colony created in 1951 by the Peruvian government as part of the national effort to colonize the Amazon territories. Walter Saxer, a Swiss-German producer, came across the long-obscured prison while working on the five-year production of Fitzcarraldo (1982).