Not a Bedtime Story

Cuentos para no dormir

Lila Penagos has fond childhood memories of her father telling her bedtime stories. She now asks him to tell her real stories about his past as a guerrilla fighter.

Carlos is the Colombian father of Ecuadorian filmmaker Penagos. The stories he told her as a child were more innocent variations on his real-life experiences as a member of a guerrilla army. Filming him during a long car journey, Penagos encourages her father to tell the real versions of the stories. What he reveals offers an insight to the other side of his life, away from home, fighting Colombian state forces. Divided into chapters and interspersed with shadow puppet plays and stage performances that re-enact Carlos’ tales, Not a Bedtime Story is a fascinating exploration of Latin American identity, which has often combined harsh reality with magical realism, and an acknowledgement of how little we often know about those closest to us.