The Demon of the Andes

Adrian Mendoza (52) has become a widow due to the effects of the war and together with his children, Juan de Dios (12) and Maria del Carmen (10), confronts the fatal situation that prevails in the convulsed city of Ayacucho. Adrian is returning to his home with Juan de Dios when a police patrol stops him for a routine search. Tthe police take him into custody as a presumed terrorist on the basis of subversive messages coming from the radio. He is branded as a terrorist and a fugitive from the law. In the days that follow more than a dozen soldiers raid his home and he is taken to the dreaded Pink House where he will be cruelly tortured.

In a town there are strange deaths, apparently caused by jarjachas, monstrous creatures that incestuous lovers become at night. Cirilo, Mateo and Remigio, with the help of a priest, will try to hunt them down and eliminate them.

After Pedro's murder by the military, the complaint filed by his father is unsuccessful. However, the man finds the solidarity of two members of the terrorist group Sendero Luminoso, who try to recruit him and his family to join the organization. Although they reject the proposal, the intelligence service members assume the opposite and make the father disappear. His wife and son search for him unsuccessfully in different police stations and barracks. They also ask the bishop of the city for help, but he justifies military actions in response to terrorist acts.

Eduardo is 12 years old when he realizes that he is not like the other children in his town. The macho family structure and the physical brutality with which his older brothers fight the first signs of his transsexuality, leave the boy no other way out than to flee his home and his town. Not even the indifference of the city serves as protection. Prostitution exposes him even more to a society that does not know how to respond to what it does not understand, if not with mistreatment and aggression.

Cirilo is an orphan kid. His fathers were killed by revolutionary anti-imperalists.

The city of Ayacucho, Peru, hosts one of the country's most moving celebrations—and indeed one of the most significant in the world—distinguished by its profound solemnity and the fervor of Christian faith. It represents the pinnacle of religious and spiritual devotion, while also serving as an expression of deep respect for local beliefs and customs and embodying the pride of a contemporary population that inherits a millennia-old blend of Andean and Western cultural traditions: Holy Week in Ayacucho-Huamanga. This documentary is the result of three years of filming from various vantage points and angles, designed to showcase the true magnificence of Holy Week in Ayacucho. It is an independent production by filmmaker Palito Ortega Matute, who was responsible for both the cinematography and the overall direction of the film. It was digitally restored in 2020 by Renato Ortega.