My village no longer lives here

Catarina Mourão, Beja: Museu da Luz/ EDIA/ Laranja Azul, 2006, 58′

“I was born beneath this water. I was 10 years old when it all happened. Some things I remember well, others are blurred and confused. People change their residence, new churches are built, new houses, new streets, but here everything changed at the same time, trying to look as if nothing changed.”
For six years the team of director Catarina Mourão filmed the daily life in the old village of Luz, doomed to disappear beneath the waters of the Alqueva dam, and the installation of the community in the new village. Made from these images and from essays by children of the village this documentary tells us in flashback the singular story of this place. These images are now part of the archive of the Museu da Luz.

The film was nominated for the 2006 edition of ‘Curtas’, Vila do Conde; won the Best Documentary Award from the Jury of FICC (International Federation of Cineclubs) at the Festival Caminhos do Cinema Português, April 2007.

May 13, 2023