The Goat Boy

17 year-old Mayan, Miguel, is living rough in Guatemala City trying to scrape together a living through street-trading to support both himself and his mother, Dominga. She is up in the Guatemalan highlands, fighting for compensation for atrocities suffered during the 1980s civil war.

Miguel’s twin sister Jacinta is cleaning houses on the other side of town and falling in love with her employer’s son, the glamorous Rafael, whose mother just happens to be the very state prosecutor opposing the highlands activists. In the meantime, a group of rather cynical Western journalists chart the progress of the court case, and a group of ‘magical realist’ goats provide a running commentary.

The tale told in Spanish and English is one of moral ambiguity that poses questions about the extent to which principles can be compromised for the sake of family loyalty, survival and power. Despite all this, it is also a comedy in which love triumphs!