Archive of films Gigante / Gigante

Uruguay / Argentina / Germany / Netherlands
2008, 84 min

Section: Horizons
Year: 2009

Investigating the fine line between love and obsession, Gigante focuses on a robust night watchman at a supermarket who discovers another dimension to his monotonous existence via his surveillance monitors. The Jury Grand Prix at the Berlinale 2009 ex aequo.

Synopsis

Jara is a shy and lonely, yet still threatening-looking 35-year-old whose work corresponds to his robust build: he’s a night watchman at a supermarket on the outskirts of Montevideo, in charge of monitoring surveillance cameras covering every corner of the building. Viewers might consider this gloomy giant a potential threat for the cleaning women and other female personnel, in that his cameras constantly record their every peccadillo. The life of the absent-minded guard runs its wary course until the moment when one of his monitors captures an image which reflects something he has always subconsciously been seeking... The director had this to say about the film: "I wanted to tear down the classic, customary model of the romantic comedy and show how an image of someone might grab hold of and dazzle a person, how they suddenly begin to notice how they look, and how finally they venture to make contact with that person. The film isn’t about the beginning of a relationship but about what comes before the beginning.”

About the director

Adrián Biniez (b. 1974, Buenos Aires) spent the 1990s touring as the singer for Reverb, a band he founded and with whom he recorded two CDs. In 2003 he accepted a small role as a musician in the movie Whisky before moving to Montevideo where he currently lives. In 2005 he began to write for "El fin del mundo,” a successful, award-winning television series produced by Taxi Film. That same year he attended film courses in Buenos Aires and Madrid, while also shooting his first short, 8 horas (2005), which won first prize at the 2006 Festival de Cine Independiente de Buenos Aires (BAFICI) and at the Uruguay IFF. Another short followed: Total Availability (Total disponibilidad, 2008). Gigante is Biniez’s feature debut.

Contacts

The Match Factory
Domstrasse 60, 50668, Cologne
Germany
Tel: +49 221 539 7090
E-mail: [email protected]
www: www.the-match-factory.com

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About the film

Color, 35 mm

Section:	Horizons

Director:	Adrián Biniez
Screenplay:	Adrián Biniez
Dir. of Photography:	Arauco Hernández
Music:	Adrián Biniez
Editor:	Fernando Epstein
Producer:	Fernando Epstein, Agustina Chiarino
Production:	Control Z Films
Cast:	Horacio Camandule, Leonor Svarcas, Néstor Guzzini, Federico García, Fabiana Charlo, Ernesto Liotti, Diego Artucio, Carlos Maria Lissardy
Contact:	The Match Factory

Guests

Michael Weber

Buyer, Sales Agent

Philipp Hoffmann

Sales Agent