Los gigantes no existen/Giants don't exist

Guatemala, in the 80s. The worst days of the Civil war. Andrés is 9 years old. He lives with Pedro González, one of the men who massacred all the women and children in his village. Andrés has survived, but he’s scared. Pedro’s wife, María, is also scared, scared to go out, scared to lose Andrés, whom she considers as «her new son»... even Pedro is scared, scared of himself and what the Army bounds him to do. Andrés would like to run away but he also wants to stay in his new family.. until his sister appears.

Guatemala, años 80. Andrés tiene 11 años y mucho miedo. Vive con María y Pedro, el hombre que mató a su hermano, uno de los hombres que masacraron a todas las mujeres y niños de su aldea. Son los peores días de la guerra. Él ha sobrevivido, pero tiene miedo. La esposa de Pedro, María, también tiene miedo, miedo de salir de casa, miedo de perder a “su nuevo hijo”… hasta Pedro tiene miedo, miedo de sí mismo. Andrés quiere huir, o quizás no. Tiene demasiado miedo para saberlo.

Director’s statement

GIANTS DON’T EXIST is a film based on a true story, the story of the last days that Jesús Tecú Osorio lived as “adopted son” in the house of one of the men who killed his family and other 177 women and children in the Guatemalan village of Río Negro, in March 1982.

However nothing of this appears in GIANTS DON’T EXIST, but in Jesús’ gaze, in Jesús’ face. Our story is focused on the time that Jesús lived with Pedro, the man who “saved his life”, and with María, Pedro’s sick wife. It is a story about fear, a story in which Jesús, despite his age, will fight against fear in order to find something that he senses, but that he doesn’t know: hope. This is a story we pretend to narrate placing a particular emphasis on silence, on what’s hidden, more than what’s told, highlighting the tension caused by fear, but also by warmth and tenderness, hope and survival, allowing tension to breathe out, and creating open spaces for the cast’s improvisation.