As ANIMATIONworld explains, “Jibaro” tells the story of a knight who awakens a gilded and bejeweled siren as he and his fellow soldiers look for riches along a river in Puerto Rico. The siren lures the other soldiers to their deaths with her irresistible song, but because the knight is deaf, he survives.

The siren then becomes fascinated by the knight, but when they embrace one another, the knight rips the gold from her body. Her blood pours into the river, and when he drinks from the river to quench his thirst, her blood restores his hearing, and he becomes yet another of the siren’s victims.

“What I want the audience to understand is that this is a film that is not about heroes,” Alberto tells the magazine. “None of our characters here are heroes. In fact, both of them are pretty sketchy. There are moments when the audience is going to favor one over the other. In the beginning, you’ll see that the woman is a monster, but later you’ll feel more empathy for her.”