RESUME

Paulina, a young Balanta woman in her thirties, returns to her village, hidden away in the mangroves of Guinea-Bissau, to help her family work in the Atlantic rice fields during the annual harvest.

Forced to contend with the tides, her Balante people have devised a rice-farming system unique in the world, enabling saline land bathed by the ocean to become fertile.

Today, having escaped the slave traders and survived the war of independence against the Portuguese, the survival of the Balanta people and the independence of Guinea-Bissau are under threat from the globalised economy and climate change.

BIOFILMOGRAPHY

Paolo Barberi is an Italian filmmaker and anthropologist. He studied filmmaking and editing at the “Diego Carpitella” Visual Anthropology Laboratory at Sapienza University of Rome. His main area of research is visual and media anthropology.

Riccardo Russo holds a PhD in human geography and has specialised in audiovisual media focusing on human rights. He has produced a number of publications and documentary films on socio-environmental issues and human rights, collaborating with production companies, television broadcasters, universities and NGOs around the world.

In 2010, they launched the « Esplorare la Metropoli » project, which focuses on research and audiovisual communication on social and environmental issues. Together, they have produced numerous projects for major international organisations (the World Food Programme, Amnesty International, NGOs, etc.) and several documentary films.

The Well – Water Voices From Ethiopia in 2011 (100 festival selections, 26 international awards, one of the most internationally acclaimed Italian documentaries). Their latest film, The Remnants, co-produced with RAI, explores the legacy of the war in Laos and has won awards at the Visions du Réel, Jean Rouch and GZDOC festivals in China.

CUE SHEET

Genre: creation documentary
Shooting: Guinea-Bissau, Portugal
Editing: France, Italy
Dialogues : portugese, creole, balanta, french
Format de tournage : UHD

A documentary film by Paolo Barberi et Riccardo Russo developed by L’Echangeur (France) in association with Esplorare le Metropoli (Italy) and the support of Procirep-Angoa