When the Land Runs Away

Northern Portugal. An imposing residence with its garden and magnolia tree. As we know, home is a place that film, this outdoor art, has often used to depict less the joys of family life than a pernicious space. André Gil Mata has made it his stage, with its rooms, its furniture, what plays out there and what has already played out there. From one room to another, from one era to another, the film delves deep into this enclosed space, a kind of suffocating box.

The Ave Valley is, for more than a century, a territory seized by an imposing industry. Amongst ruins and operating factories, we descend the river on a journey alongside the banks of the present, unveiling the marks of the past.

Coming from every parts of Africa, runs a river of men and women prepared to cross entire continents, pursuing a life that is denied to those that live in the periphery.

In south-eastern Spain, there is a wall separating two worlds: a healthy world, and a sick world, once deemed contagious. The sanatorium of Les Fontilles used to be a sanctuary for people suffering from leprosy. Callisto Mc Nulty criss-crosses this border seeking out witnesses from the past and present, who through their stories become the keepers of a disappearing world.

Two suits keep pushing each other with a rope that ties them together.

Caught in time, a trio of prehistoric characters lives around a dolmen. One of them, who is hyperactive, tries to stir his mates emotions with inventions and works of art. A strange object made out of bone, which re frames reality, will trigger greed and envy in them. Super 8 allegorical on Portugal, and the collective behavior of its people.

“A struggle. A glance inward reveals another world, a mutable world. I only exist within myself.” - Film made during the free workshop "A Nebulosa" in Porto, Portugal. With 122 meters of 16mm Film.

From the bride's room to the dance floor, through the situations created by photographers, we follow three couples on their wedding day. People working in the industry invite us to imagine the choices that the preparation of this day implies, the course of marriage preparation leads us to project the future that starts now: a daily life together. When looking at it - we all know how’s a wedding - All the Days of Our Lives tries to think about the desires that guide our life choices, ideals of love, having a family, belonging to the community.

In an ominous Lisbon courtyard where the last executioner of the kingdom once lived, an accident is waiting to happen. After a patient game of who's observing who, four characters will collide with dire consequences. Inspired by the novel The Damned Yard by Nobel Prize-winning Bosnian writer Ivo Andrić, this is a masterclass in slow cinema, a pure 16mm cinematic pleasure by André Gil Mata.