My Childhood

‘My mother died when I was five years old. My father never spoke to me about her. Last year, my mother’s family, who is Portuguese, tracked me down. I’m on my way to Portugal to see them, for the first time in 20 years.’

Pierre invites his boyfriend, Hervé, to Lisbon where he recently discovered some relatives. Over the course of this journey, Pierre tells us about his ideals in love, and the conflicting ideals of his boyfriend.

Franck heals horses with his hands. With his children, he is loving and playful. With horses, he is patient and delicate. But when it comes to talking to Zita, he clams up.

Pierre Primetens was born on 22 April 1974, three days before the Carnation Revolution which put an end to the Portuguese dictatorship. He spent the first years of his childhood in Chaville, not far from Versailles and regularly took family trips to Portugal, until the death of his mother. Then his life takes another turn. Memories pile up, and photos of his childhood and his family get lost or destroyed. Retracing and understanding the events that marked his biography and determined his being become a fundamental step for him to survive. Consequently, he decides to tell his story by borrowing the images of others.