Assistant Director
Beatriz married Henrique on the day of her 21st birthday. Henrique, a naval officer, would spend long periods at sea. Ashore, Beatriz, who learned everything from the verticality of plants, took great care of the roots of their six children. The oldest son, Jacinto (Hyacinth), my father, dreamed he could be a bird. One day, suddenly, Beatriz died. My mom didn’t die suddenly, but she too died when I was 17 years-old. On that day, me and my father met in the loss of our mothers and our relationship was no longer just that of father and daughter.
Director of Photography
Every four years, the residents of Campo Maior, in Portugal’s arid Alentejo region, reinvent their village: each street is lavishly decorated with paper flowers, painstakingly handmade in the months before being put on display. Rui Silveira films this tradition in his birthplace, taking us on a trip out of time. Capturing the smallest details, he conveys the patience and skill that go into a beautiful ephemeral art that brings the community’s spirit to life; meanwhile, questions related to rurality and exile keep cropping up in the conversations. The fragility of the paper flowers, threatened as much by the weather as by souvenir-hungry tourists, is a window on an ages-old world struggling to protect its integrity.
