A pagan tradition in a village in the countryside of Portugal leaves painful traces in a group of young teenagers. 25 years later, when they meet again, the past resurfaces and tragedy sets in.

I have always wondered about the reasons behind violence amongst people. Today more than ever, this question remains one without any possible or tangible answers. We live in a society that advances in time but does not evolve, it eats itself, forever more detached from nature, producing in excess with only profit in mind. A society that forgets those that for one reason or another stay behind, those that cannot keep up, or choose not to.

This film is born from the need to reflect upon the violence exerted by the strongest upon the weakest, this illusion of power that swarms us in all aspects of society. It seeks to examine the loss of innocence, where it occurs and for what reasons.

And perhaps the biggest goal was to reflect upon fear. On how it conditions us, how it transforms us and thwarts reality.

The background setting of this film is the confrontation between the fundamental nobleness of human beings and that which we call human malice, often born from fear and ignorance of anything that is different or strange. An ancestral confrontation that society camouflages, hides, and does not have the knowledge or culture necessary to be able to eradicate it.

From there was born the need to reflect on the rites of passage (here represented through a semi-pagan ancestral tradition), almost always connected to violent and misogynistic manifestations that try to in some form symbolize that extreme “separation” where a social status is abandoned so as to acquire another.

The need to belong to a group, the desire to be accepted by those we deem strongest, as well as the desire and need to humiliate the weakest, are unfortunately traits which are still too current, and certain traditions, not only those from old rituals, appear to want to legitimize the way in which groups exert their power and violence upon others. See all kinds of hazing practices, for instance, which exist in so many forms.

A community that hides the crimes of its past, that does not examine them and does not redeem itself, will be incapable of preventing future violence. It will live forever haunted. It is the shadow that arrives before the body. It is the anticipation of what might happen. A fear that changes perceptions and makes the world see through its distorted lens. A fear of anything that is different and unknown, a fear that leads to the violence and injustice which define our world. There are no morals, because there is no space for them. There is only tragedy. And fear.

Tiago Guedes