Giants Don’t Exist
(Los Gigantes no existen)
Chema Rodríguez / Guatemala / 2017 / 82 Min
Date: Friday, October `13, 2023
Time: 5:30 PM – Film Viewing
7:20 PM – Post-film discussion with director Chema Rodriguez and panel (Dr. Yovanna Pineda, Dr. Annabelle Conroy, and Holly McDonald).
Zoom Link
Location: UCF Main Campus / Nicholson COM 101
SYNOPSIS
Spanish and Mayan with English subtitles
With Luis Carlos Pineda, Jesús Tecú, Marta Tuyuc.
Guatemala in the 1980s, at the height of the ruthless civil war against the country’s indigenous communities. 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… The unexpected arrival of his biological sister will change everything.
Based on the true story of Guatemalan activist Jesús Tecú, Chema Rodríguez’s second feature is a harrowing and powerful drama about survival and hope. Teco was one of the few survivors of the Río Negro massacre in 1982, in which 177 women and children died.